Artist statement.
I question different forms of communication expressed through words, vocal sounds and the body. I re-arrange codes and signs to generate new meaning from familiar codes of common regimes of communication. I am interested in situations where communication breaks down, where language is no longer a well-oiled machine and, therefore, can collapse; or does it just get transformed into something different?
This breakdown or transformation is not only inherent to language itself – it can be applied to other communicational structures that occur between humans.
I see communication as systems of hierarchy, whose authority I undermine through my work by creating situations where we can witness, through the loss of meaning, the transformation of language. This can reveal a range of unexpected implicit meanings, setting up a rather different social exchange.
It is this transformation that is the driving force behind my work, as it offers possibilities to make visible the gaps already existing within a common regime. It is by highlighting these gaps that I expose the subjects that would not normally be seen. I find it important to highlight that which does not fit and lies outside or beyond a common system as, here, I can raise awareness towards a different understanding of what the common norm would conceive of as ‘other’.
My work operates with a touch of absurdity; it is created by the different layers that come out of my research. The layers are my own abstraction of the subjects that I work with. I assemble the different layers into the work; for example, one work may consist of many different layers that relate to the research. It is through these layers of abstraction that I convey the complexity and absurdity that language offers in term of communication. I do this in order to be able to ask the question of how we use our communicative skills with care.
Working Process
I translate research material into layers of abstraction, where I combine and repeat language and bodily movements to create work in a variety of mediums.
I research through a variety of methods, such as singing with an aphasic choir, to interviewing subjects of a certain kind, as I did for the work Speak If You Can, Otherwise Sing It or positioning myself in a situation where I can feel a language barrier, as I experienced with my trip to China, which resulted in the work “Spread the Word – Language is a Decoration. My research periods a quite extensive and some researches are on going such as my collection of slogans and one-liners from books, people and situations. As a result, a work can have various outcomes, such as a score in an exhibition or a live performance.
Pernille Lonstrup
E-mail: Pernille@lonstrup.com
KVK-number: 55060706
Facebookname: Pernille.lonstrup