Kitchen Confidential

  Download  Prisliste Kitchen Confidential

It is a great pleasure to present, ‘Kitchen Confidential’, Rose Eken’s third solo show at the gallery. Rose Eken’s artistic practice evolves around the notion of space and the objects, traces, myths and clichés that are encoded in our modern culture. Rose Eken will show new works in ceramic focusing on the kitchen and the utensils we all use every day.

In the visual arts ‘kitchen-pieces’ have always been present and through the ages the classical baroque still-life scenarios have developed from Pop Arts ironical rendering of cookware, food and mass culture with artists such Claes Oldenburg and Richard Hamilton, to more political and feminist interpretations presenting kitchenware layered and harrowing as a direct instrument of torture – just think of Louise Bourgeois’ use of meat mincers or Mona Hatoum’s oversized grater and electric kitchen appliances.

The kitchen and its utensils have never been more popular than at present. From solely having been the domain of women, the kitchen of today is very much also a space where men preside. The supply of kitchen appliances, devices, gadgets and gizmos has indeed escalated. Mass media is overflowing with celebrity chefs, cooking show, health gurus and the very latest kitchen equipment.

‘Kitchen Confidential’ adds a whole new dimension to the idea of the kitchen. Palette knives, ladles, whisks and strainers are arranged as were they classic still-life tableaux. Mobiles of appliances and utensils are hanging from the ceiling. Pots and pans are stacked on top of each other forming giant pillars. A classical colonnade of dishwashing and neatly arranged bouquets of brushes, spoons and ladles. Through these juxtapositions ‘Kitchen Confidential’ initiates a new and original dialogue between the proverbial, the actual and the abstract.

Rose Eken graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2001 and from the Royal College of Art in London in 2003. Since then she has received much critical acclaim internationally with exhibitions in galleries and museums all over the world. Currently she is showing her much praised installation ‘Tableau’ at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark as well as having just completed a comprehensive commission of Frederiksbjerg school in Aarhus.