Katja Bjørn: Ovum

March 18 – April 23 2022

 

Charlotte Fogh Gallery is proud to present OVUM – a solo exhibition by Katja Bjørn. The exhibition features a monumental video work, photographic pigment prints, and wall pieces containing knitted installations.

The title of the exhibition OVUM translates to the Latin word for the eggs created inside the female body. In the exhibition Katja Bjørn works with the visual, cultural, and social impact of the egg as phenomenon and contemplates on its importance not just in society but also as the origin of life. The round shape is present in various aspects of life – for example in biology and nature where the cell, the eye, the brain, the planet Earth, and the egg mimics the round shape. The ovular – or the egg – originates not only from an organic being but is also fundamental for all living and is woven into our language – both locally and globally. The egg and planet Earth are comparable in many ways: Both phenomena has living environments. The eggshell creates a clear perimeter between the inside and outside world only to be crossed when the life within the egg is ready to face the outer world. The egg also represents a private sphere that correlates to our shared home – planet Earth.

The egg as symbol of fertility is present across art history, mythology, religion, and cultures. In the renowned altarpiece Brera Madonna (1472) by Piero della Francesca an egg is seen hanging in a string above Virgin Mary and the surrounding saints creating a symmetric center of gravity. The works featured at the exhibition OVUM Katja Bjørn also link the human body to the egg where flows of cosmic power transcends into the rhythms of the body.

Katja Bjørn (b. 1967) is MA in Art History and Religious Studies and lives and works in Aarhus. Katja Bjørn is represented in museum collections such as ARoS Museum of Modern Art, Randers Art Museum, Horsens Art Museum, KØN Gender Museum Denmark and is part of the collections of Aarhus Municipality and The Danish Arts Foundation. In recent years Bjørn has had solo exhibitions at Horsens Art Museum, Viborg Kunsthal and Skive Art Museum.