Cassandra’s Sisters

The group exhibition Cassandra’s sisters – painters of the future lift the curse features 15 contemporary female artists who have created diverse works within painting – in a broad sense, virtuoso, and pastose, and with the mythological character Cassandra as a central figure. The exhibition is a tribute to painting, a sisterhood of solidarity, and a reinterpretation of Cassandra’s destiny.

The painting has been deemed in and out of style, been said to be stone-dead or alive and kicking. Female artists have mostly been suppressed and barred from art history and the academies. However, increased focus and initiative suggest a disruption and a breakthrough for contemporary female artists – as well as those, who have been written out of art history. Now, art history is up for debate. The curators are on a mission, when they invite reinterpretations of the Greek myth of Cassandra.

A selection of 15 contemporary female artists have been invited to create works relating to the theme of ‘truth and consequence’, taking the myth of Cassandra as a starting point. Cassandra was an attractive princess and was given the gift of prophecy by the god Apollo. However, Apollo expected the favour to be repaid with her love. But Cassandra did not reciprocate Apollo’s interest. The rejection enraged Apollon, and he cast a curse on her, which meant that no one would believe her prophecies. The artists approach the myth from each their own angle, and interpret and build upon the myth’s many perspectives, as well as Cassandra’s character and struggles, from a more contemporary perspective.

With their strong narrative sense, painting skills, and insistent sympathy for the visionary, but ostracised, Cassandra, the artists show how the ancient myth still carries importance today. Apollo-types are unfortunately not only present in ancient Greek literature, but the artists stick together, both in personal experiences, and in their resistance to structural challenges in the art industry of today. They have produced imageries characterised by anger, loneliness, consolation, reconciliation, spirit, solidarity, integrity, sovereignty, resistance, and much more, as they approach the myth of Cassandra and the painting from their own perspectives in the historical surroundings of Round Tower’s Library Hall.

The organisers of the exhibition and the network Cassandra’s Sisters are Henriette Hellstern, Anna Walther, and Helle Moalem. The exhibition is curated by Henriette Hellstern and Anna Walther, and presents both established and younger artists. The three iniators of the exhibition also founded a community, a network, and exchange among colleagues, in an aim to initiate more collaborations and synergy between artists, and to lift each other into a sisterhood, who paint each other better.

The participating artists are:
Agnete Bertram, Ditte Marie Frost, Emily Gernild, Henriette Hellstern, Mie Olise Kjærgaard, Tanja Nis-Hansen, Coline Marotta, Mie Mørkeberg, Marie Rud Rosenzweig, Bolatta Silis-Høegh, Ida Sønder Thorhauge, Anne Torpe, Helene Vestergaard, Anna Walther, and Maria Wæhrens.

In connection with the exhibition, a publication with an introduction by the curators Henriette Hellstern and Anna Walther, and art advisor Helle Moalem is published. The artist bios are written by art historian Natalia Gutman, graphic design is by Anders Gerning, and photographs are by Rine Rodin.

All sales inquiries or questions regarding the art works can be directed to Helle Moalem

The Artists

AGNETE BERTRAM

Even though Apollo had ruined Cassandra, she kept sharing what she saw in her visions. Feel free to take a look inside the free-hanging crystal balls. What do you see in the future? Bertram gives you the opportunity to look out onto the other artists in the exhibition and Rundetaarn’s characterful architecture. Among the colorful abstractions on the silk curtains you can detect shapes of snakes and a face with a hardened smile and bleeding eyes.

DITTE MARIE FROST

A duel plays out between the rough and corroded surfaces with cobweb and the lucid, transparent figures. The work is a tribute to innocence and persistent truth. Cassandra is given the ability to predict the future. However, she is cursed in that her surroundings will not listen to her. But even though she is held hostage and sustained in this resistance, she remains clear about her visions. It is this clarity in Cassandra’s nature and her unique position Frost explores in her works.

EMILY GERNILD

What happens when you don’t succeed at what seems to be your destiny? When you are not allowed to realise what you believe in and live as the person you are. Here, Gernild examines Cassandra’s inner decay. A female figure sits alone in all her beauty, luminous in a dark room – also outlining the paradox that it was Cassandra’s beauty that was the reason for her curse and disrepair. Next to her, on a table, is a small goblet that can flow with both delusion, repression and solace.

HENRIETTE HELLSTERN

Hellstern asks the viewer to move around the four works, the same way the Trojans inquisitively moved around the wooden horse. On a green, red, orange and blue background, Hellstern depicts four of Cassandra’s states of mind: Flight, fight, courage and frustration. We see arms and legs flailing, and arms and legs going nowhere. We see flower symbolism in the shape of the Ruta graveolens plant, said to give you psychic abilities, and the perservering lotus, shooting up through the mud as a symbol of the purity of the mind. Cassandra is also depicted as furious, but her heart beats on intactly, while a meat-eating plant is right at her heels.

MIE OLISE KJÆRGAARD

Cassandra carried a heavy curse. She was trapped in a vicious spiral. In Kjærgaard’s work, the bike path also goes around in a circle. Nevertheless, the five women appear ready to pedal, they keep their balance despite their heavy load, and they might find a way out of the circling arena. The orange hair flaps in the wind, as is known from depictions of Cassandra, and the pointy, witch-like hats seem to be worn with solidary pride. Kjærgaard found the quote during her research, and it is supposedly from a medical article from the end of the 19th century that warns women against “the dangers” of cycling – and it might also function as a useful guide for all cycling women …

COLINE MAROTTA

Cassandra’s fate is harsh, she experiences exclusion, isolation and frustration with the suspicion her prophecies are met with. With her two paintings, Marotta wants to instill the opposite; sympathy, embrace and recognition. The two red, warm figures in Marotta’s work gesture solicitude and safety. The eyes are closed to better make room for calm, while the arms create a sheltered space in an attempt to make room for appreciation and trust.

MIE MØRKEBERG

Despair and helplessness spew like fire from the eyes in the scorching hot orange crystal balls. Cassandra was fatefully isolated and excluded while experiencing everybody else’s life through her clear-sightedness. In Mørkeberg’s work, an abandoned female figure appears with a big hole in her stomach and a bandage around her head. The body is drawn in a bow, and flames have dissolved most of the body up to the riddled torso. She floats in the sky or maybe under water, while she holds a glowing red ball out in front of her.

TANJA NIS-HANSEN

With the grand staircase room, Nis-Hansen pulls the viewer into a kind of symbolic abstraction on Cassandra’s ability to see through time and space. The optical effect spins the viewer around, and the words SCRUM CRUMBS CRUMP whirl along the railing. It is a flaming orange inner glimpse as well as an image of the twisted DNA strands that characterize her fate. With her work, Nis-Hansen seeks to call into question whether we really always want more insight into circumstances we might be powerless to do anything about.

MARIE RUD ROSENZWEIG

A pig, a fish and an ice skater are depicted with their backs turned, each on their own canvas attached to chicken wire. In her work, Rosenzweig examines what these three figures have in common; linguistically, physically and formally – a kind of paraphrase of their kinship, and an invitation to further reflect on what the essence of sisterhood is.

BOLATTA SILIS-HØEGH

Based on her own experiences with being subjected to a Cassandran curse, Silis-Høegh has created two paintings wherein sides of herself from the past, present and future come together. A loving moment and a space for intimacy, forgiveness and reconciliation. Two women, who are one and the same, embrace. The shades are warm, the surroundings dark, and the intimate situation permeated by vulnerability. The figures are barefooted and dressed in an anorak, as a token of appreciation for Silis-Høegh’s Greenlandic identity.

IDA SØNDER THORHAUGE

We stare directly into Cassandra’s eyes in Thorhauge’s triptych. According to the myth, it was Apollo who bestowed the gift of prophecy upon Cassandra. But who was Cassandra prior to her fateful encounter with the vindictive Apollo? Engulfed by a restless darkness, her glowing orange figure appears in the moonlight. Her mouth is closed, but the moon is reflected in her eyes, and her hand reaches for the tree of knowledge. Thorhauge suggests a revised view on Cassandra, posing the question whether her visions might have been her own strong intuition, preceding Apollo’s intervention – and shows a Cassandra with desires of her own.

ANNE TORPE

Cassandra’s identity has been corrupted, her freedom to choose who she wants to be has been restricted, and her relationship with her surroundings ruined. Thus, Cassandra has often been depicted as shocked and frustrated while tearing her hair. In Torpe’s work, 15 female figures appear on six compounded canvases. Some have their eyes closed in what seems like a moment of introspection, while others don’t even realize that they have been mirrored. Tarot cards are spread out on the floor, as a kind of counter manoeuvre from Cassandra’s sisters, challenging the spell of the myth with new forces.

HELENE VESTERGAARD

Vestergaard’s five collage panels mime a kind of notice board with personal dreams, visions and nightmares, an exposure of the primmed and glitzy, that which is not taken seriously, but also of the repressed and absurd, manifested in beautiful flowers, bugs and odd creatures. This is a declaration of sympathy towards Cassandra who was considered frivolous and untrustworthy, a tribute to the feminine aesthetic which has often been considered superficial and lacking.

ANNA WALTHER

Walther is occupied with the kinship between clairvoyance and paranoia. Cassandra was deemed maladjusted and unreliable; What did this exclusion and stigmatization do to her? In her three works, Walther presents two figures and a sky with sparkling and singing stars. The back-turned figure has opened a closet with bags and stern eyes staring out while she is being pulled by golden roots. Conversely, the figure in the dress appears to be fully herself, but also fully unaware that she is being observed from the drawn-back stage curtain. It is a struggle between light and dark and between personal grounding and the disastrous curse.

MARIA WÆHRENS

Cassandra is rejected and excluded, but she remains faithful to the truths she holds. It is this inner mobility and insistence Wæhrens explores. How does it affect Cassandra to be met with resistance? Can the resistance be turned into a quality, and does it define her strong, but frustrated being? In her painting, Wæhrens wants to explore the sincerity and spiritual power that Cassandra represents. The burning sun with the blue centre is also a centre for energy and life, while the beings spooning for Wæhrens express vulnerability and innocence.

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Contact

All sales inquiries or questions regarding the art works can be directed to Helle Moalem at helle@hellemoalem.com or phone 22132213.