Horsens Art Museum

The working practice of the Danish visual artist Rose Eken (b. 1976) recalls comprehensive field studies in culture, history, memory and perception by an ethnographer. Spotting the potential of the immediate and the available, Rose Eken offers unique insights into our popular culture and the times we live in. Wit, personality and an acute eye for details are characteristic of her works and installations. They pique our curiosity and speak to most people. Afterbeat is Rose Eken’s first solo exhibition in a Danish museum and as the title suggests it is music culture that is the object of the artistic work here.

The exhibition circles around Rose Eken’s longstanding interest in popular culture and rock music, and the works frame in different ways the moment just before or just after a concert. The museum’s three rooms form the frame for a story about the concert; about the musician and the audience. In the first room we meet a new series of glass paintings that represent music fans in different ways, through the way they cultivate their idols, for example by by embroidering their jackets or backpacks with patches featuring  band names. The museum’s large exhibition gallery is staged as a space, frozen in time; The moment after the concert is over – where the musicians have left the stage and the audience has left. Remaining is only the safety fences, beer cans, plastic cups and cigarette butts – all made in ceramics. The works appear immediately palpable and realistic, but at a closer glance, one will find that scale and proportions have undergone a change.