Detail: Camilles Kåbe (Cape for Camille), 2018 

Lufthul i Onyx Marble (Airhole in Onyx Marble) 2018

Onyx Marble, H5,5xD4xW3 cm.

Lufthul i Onyx Marble (Airhole in Onyx Marble) 2018

Machine drilled figure in Onyx Marble. After 3D scanned model of 1:1 air bubble in plaster

Installation view MFA Degree Show 2018

Kunsthal Charlottenborg

Text by Curator Henriette Bretton-Meyer, 

Kunsthal Charlottenborg

For exhibitionguide for Afgang 2018 / MFA Degree Show 2018

2018 April-May

Ida Retz Wessberg

Camilles kåbe(Cape for Camille) &

Lufthul i Onyx Marble(Air hole in Onyx Marble)

Den franske kunstner Camille Claudel (1864-1943) har med sine kunstværker og personlige historie været en vigtig inspirationskilde for Ida Retz Wessberg. Claudel studerede på én af de få kunstskoler, der på den tid optog kvindelige studerende, men blev kendt som den franske billedhugger Auguste Rodins assistent og elskerinde og nød først sent i livet selv anerkendelse som kunstner.

Som tidligere værker af Retz Wessberg forholder den monumentale skulptur Camilles kåbe sig til forestillinger om krop og køn. Den fremstår som en skal; dens ydre struktur er en tydelig afstøbning af sammensyede dynejakker, mens kåbens inderside vidner om selve værkets tilblivelsesproces. Retz Wessberg er optaget af dynejakkens forunderlige skulpturelle kvaliteter og hvordan ”indkapslet” luft er med til at give den volumen og form.

Som kontrast hertil udstiller Retz Wessberg en lille, undselig skulptur, hvis organiske form er blevet til ved at støbe et ”lufthul” i gips. Materialet er den karakteristiske grønne stenart onyx marble, kendt fra flere af Claudels værker.

/ English version

The works and personal history of the French artist Camille Claudel (1864– 1943) has been a major source of inspiration for Ida Retz Wessberg. Claudel studied at one of the few art schools that accepted female students at the time, but mainly became known as the assistant and mistress of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Only late in life did she enjoy recognition as an artist in her own right.

Like previous works by Retz Wessberg, the monumental sculpture Cape for Camille addresses established concepts of body and gender. It appears shell-like: its outer structure is very clearly a cast taken from padded jackets that have been sown together, whereas the inside of the cloaktestifies to the creation of the work itself. Retz Wessberg is interested in the strange and wondrous sculptural qualities of the padded jacket and in how ‘encapsulated’ air helps to give it volume and form.

In contrast to this, Retz Wessberg exhibits a small, unassuming sculpture whose organic shape came about by casting an ‘air hole’ in plaster. The material is the distinctive green stone known as onyx marble, familiar from several of Claudel’s works.