Pernille With Madsen

Excavating the remains of three grain silos, With Madsen unearths the disembodied toes of a classical statue, partially buried in sand. Vast in scale and encased in faux marble, the installation slips between illusion and actuality, sculpture and relic. A doorway, sealed with a gold plate, distils the work’s seductive pull: With Madsen presents an imaginary past, only to expose the artifice that lures us in. 

If this sculpture hints at an object so large that it can be glimpsed only piecemeal, With Madsen also draws us in on a miniature scale. The artist presents a group of knotted, clawed forms, recalling primordial creatures or homunculi. Presented inside a vitrine, the work recalls a Renaissance wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosities which, by collecting rare specimens from across the globe, was supposed to symbolise its owner’s power. These tiny sculptures mock such presumptions – hinting instead towards magical unknowns, waiting to be found. 

High on the balcony, a new film that displays the deteriorating facade of a modern tower block blends with the crumbling hall, its torn curtains echoing the fractured ceiling. Only one element is exhibited in a pointedly conventional manner: a marble slab hangs alone on the wall. Printed in black and white, the lipless, toothy grin of an ancient sculpture smiles across the veined surface. This image foregrounds themes of decay and memorialisation, and while the rasterised print suggests historical archive, its collaged form gives little away. Unsettling conventions of authorship and display, With Madsen challenges how we read space, recognise images, and orientate ourselves in the present day.