21 september 2018
At DIS everyone has a core course. For some people, like me, it’s the same as their major back home. For others it’s something different, sometimes completely unrelated. Last week everyone had core course week where instead of having the regular class schedule everyone focuses on their core course. For graphic design foundations and studio this meant lots of museums, sketching, and three days in western Denmark.
Monday
Monday morning was sort of like regular class where from 9:00-12:00 we worked in studio on the current project. After studio we took a ferry (bad thing for motion sickness #1) to Reffen which is an outdoor food truck area but instead of trucks they’re repurposed shipping containers. All the food looked good but I was feeling too nauseous to eat so it’s on my list of places to go back to. Afterwards we walked to Copenhagen Contemporary, a relatively new museum. The museum is pretty small with only two exhibitions up currently. The first is an installation by SUPERFLEX of swings (bad thing for motion sickness #2) entitled One Two Three Swing!. The swings are designed for two or three people and are meant to give people a way to experience the benefits of collaboration. The second part of this piece is a reflective pendulum swinging over a carpet in the colors of Euro notes and meant to reflect apathy. The second piece was a 360-degree screen (bad thing for motion sickness #3) with a 35 minute video by Doug Aitken entitled SONG 1. The video had different artists' takes on the song "I Only Have Eyes for You" mixed with night shots of a cityscape. I really loved the mix of abstract shots, people, and cityscapes. PlusI’m always a sucker for jazz.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning was spent talking about sketchbooks and how to use them and ways to fill them. Afterwards we went to Arken to practice all we had learned. It was a rainy day so instead of eating lunch on the beach we ate in the shopping center connected to the train station. Following lunch everyone made the misty walk to the museum. Since I had gone the week before I didn't feel rushed to both see the exhibit and complete sketches. Lunch, sketching, and the museum were pretty standard; what was a new experience happened when we left Arken. After about two hours sketching all three graphic design classes walked over to a cafe, had coffee, and passed our sketchbooks around the table. I've had minimal experience sharing my sketchbook with teachers and none sharing it with other students. It was interesting to hear other people's opinions and see how they interpreted the artwork in the museum.
Wednesday
On Wednesday there were no scheduled activities. I thought about going to the Zoological Museum but it was another rainy day so I did homework, worked on the last post, and bought some groceries.
Thursday
Everyone met near Copenhagen Central Station at 7:30 in the morning to board the bus to Sorø. The first stop, Alsted Kirke, was about a 45-minute ride away. Alsted Kirke is an old, traditional Danish church located in Fjenneslev built around 1150. We got to climb up inside the bell tower which was very cramped. After learning about the importance of "thank you" in my Danish class, I was intrigued by all the gravestones that said "tak" or "tak for alt" -- thanks for all.
After the church we went to Sorø Kunstmuseum (Sorø Art Museum) which had displays of Danish art and Russian iconography. Then we made the short drive to Clausen Grafisk, a high quality print shop. There we spent an hour learning about their process of offset printing and how they work with clients.
The last museum of the day was Brandts Media Museum in Odense located in an old textile factory. The museum had a special exhibit entitled Photography to End All Photography which explored photography in a digital age. All the photos in the exhibit had been manipulated digitally in ways that made them almost believable. There was also an exhibit on media through the ages, from letterpress and posters to modern magazines and news channels.
The group ate dinner at Den Grimme Alling and we passed around our sketchbooks at the end of the meal. After dinner I ran back to the museum to get some postcards because they were $0.15 each, and then I passed out in what felt like the world's smallest hotel room at the CabInn.
Friday
The day started early, though not quite as early as Thursday, meeting in the lobby at 8:00 to get on the bus and go to Kolding. In Kolding we toured the very modern design school. It seemed to have workshops for everything someone could want, from screen printing to leather to weaving. After the tour everyone got on the bus again to go to Aarhus. Our first stop was Aarhus Street Food which, like Reffen, is a bunch of different food stands in one giant warehouse. We only had half an hour to eat so I went straight to the falafel place knowing they'd have something vegetarian.
Following the quick lunch we visited DesignIt, a design firm started in Denmark but now with offices all around the world. They gave us a presentation about projects the company has worked on and what their goals are in terms of design and internally as a company. I was surprised to hear about all the different majors and skillsets of the people working there, from design to journalism. After the presentation it was on to the Dansk Plakatmuseum (Danish Poster Museum) which is located in Den Gamle By (The Old Town). De Gamle By is more or less the Danish version of Iowa's Living History Farms. There's a late 1800s section with buildings from the time period, as well as a 1920s and 1970s section. Currently work is being done on a 2014 part of town. As a fan of vintage poster design I was looking forward to the Poster Museum. Along with the usual Danish posters they had a special exhibition entitled "1968: Posters from a Rebellion". On the way back out through The Old Town we stopped to get an assortment of pastries. I tried one made with all the leftovers from the other pastries and apparently it's pretty famous.
After checking into the hotel (another CabInn but this time with slightly larger bathrooms) everyone walked to Globen Flakket for what was by far the fanciest dinner I've had since arriving in Denmark. The vegetarian option was falafel with a salad and fries, so I had a lot of chickpeas that day. I also got a fancy lemonade with real ginger in it, and since it was someone's birthday we all got chocolate cake. The post-dinner plan was to go do karaoke with our teacher but of the three bars we went to, the karaoke nights were Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Instead I went to Netto with Grace and Kate. We got chocolate and sat in the park outside the city hall designed by Arne Jacobsen.
A Note About CabInn
I've stayed in some small hotels like the Pod in New York, but this was by far the most cramped. The beds were similar to ones you'd find in a boat. The bathroom felt more like an airplane bathroom than anything you'd find on the ground. The most interesting thing was the shower design. The same switch turned the water on for the sink and the shower. If a dial was turned one way the sink would turn on. If it was turned the other way water would come out of the shower. This made using the bathroom in the morning a little bit of an adventure because if the last person to shower didn't turn the dial all the way the next person to wash their hands will get a surprise shower.
Saturday
The meeting time wasn't until 9:15 so everyone enjoyed getting a little extra sleep. From the hotel we walked to ARoS, a very big, very cool museum in Aarhus. We only had two hours there which was unfortunate because I ended up having to speed run the museum and didn't get the chance to really take everything in. I need to make the time to go back. The current exhibitions include: March of the Banal with works by Jake & Dinos Chapman, No Man is an Island - The Satanic Verses with works from the collection, Human Nature with works from the collection, and an installation of art involving light and sound.
I started in the basement where the installation art is located. There was a room set up like a gay nightclub after close (Too Late by Elmgreen & Dragset), a room set up like a living room (Dawn Hours in the Neighbour's House by Pipilotti Rist) with video, lights, and sound to represent the passing of 24-hours in 8 minutes. Another room had red lights illuminating an otherwise black room (Milkrun III by James Turrell) and there were small alcoves covered in mirrors and lights (Surroundings by Olafur Eliasson) gave me a bit of a headache and definitely confused my brain.
I then went up to the 5th floor where the Chapman Brothers' pieces were located. This was definitely the most shocking exhibition. On the wall was a series of 80 collages entitled The Disasters of Everyday Life which were reworked Goya etchings from The Disasters of War. There were dioramas with mutated humans, dinosaurs, Nazis, and Ronald McDonalds. There was a room with chairs facing a screen with life-sized KKK figures in some of the chairs and standing around the room.
After March of the Banal I went up to the 6th floor for No Man is an Island - The Satanic Verses. Right inside the doors was Boy by Ron Mueck which is a hyperrealistic 4.5 meter (14.75 ft) tall sculpture of a boy. A piece very relevant to my current studio project was Untitled (Flagwaste) by Garder Eide Einarsson which had remnants of fabric from Scandinavian flags piled on the floor in front of a black monochrome painting. On the wall next to the flag was Anything Helps by Jani Leinonen, a display of cardboard signs the artist bought from homeless people across Europe. It's always interesting to see what can be considered art when put in the right context. Another piece that stood out to me was Fucked (Couple) by Tony Matelli because I know a few people who might be upset by the smashed Steinway grand piano.
With under an hour left I went up to the 10th floor to experience Your Rainbow Panorama by artist Olafur Eliasson. This glass walkway placed on top of the museum shifts through all the colors of the rainbow and gives a great view of Aarhus.
After enjoying the deck top of the museum I ran down to the 8th floor with 15 minutes left to try and get through Human Nature. Unfortunately I really had to rush and wasn't able to stop and look at the art and read about the pieces but I did see some interesting photos and paintings.
At noon everyone met up at the museum cafe and were served very fancy (do you see a theme with the food) smorrebrød which is a traditional Danish food of rye bread with butter and lots of toppings. After lunch we got on the bus to the final museum.
The last stop on our trip was the Trapholt Museum in Kolding. This museum has a permanent exhibition focusing on Danish furniture designer Arne Jacobsen and the Richard Mortensen Gallery. Current special exhibitions include on on famous Danish toy designer Kay Bojensen and an exhibit entitled Edicus & Lilith by Kristine Roepstorff. At the beginning, to try and stay focused on sketching, I spent my time drawing anything related to animals. I was also really drawn to the paintings in the Richard Mortensen Gallery with their large scale, geometric shapes, and use of color.
After the museum we did a final sketchbook share and then got on the bus back for the two hour ride back to Copenhagen Central Station. From Copenhagen Central Station I took another bus back to my kollegium, made dinner, and then slept for 12 hours.
Sunday
On Sunday I slept in and then spent the rest of the day finishing up some sketches and gluing stuff into my sketchbook. Here's a review of the six days:
