Brigade is happy to present 'Landscape is a verb', a duo exhibition by Amanda Lydért and Frederik Nystrup-Larsen, now open at Servando Gallery in Havana, Cuba.
The exhibition centers around the use and consumption of naturalistic imagery and the exchange of beauty. Through Cuban post stamps, product labels, cast coconuts and multiple other artifacts, Lýdert and Nystrup-Larsen investigate the sublime as well as the faux.
By copying, imitating, and conserving The Landscape, the works pose as souvenirs for the future, paying an homage to nature, the ultimate beauty ideal. One that is meant to simultaneously please and spark discomfort. The exhibition is a part of the artists' ongoing concept 'Import/export', working from universal phenomena manifested in various locations through site-specific installations.
'Landscape is a verb' has been realized through the artists' participation in Brigade's Havana residency programme. For one month, Lydért and Nystrup-Larsen have researched, conceptualized and produced all works locally. These site-specific pieces are showcased alongside works by previous artists in residence, including; Rune Bering, Søren Sejr, Coline Marotta, Martin Gallone.
Landscape is a verb
Catch the suggestion -
to make it one ́s objective
to create accounts of fading beauty.
Art conservators getting their hands dirty.
Knees green from the sublime.
Test artistic practice as documentation,
documentation as practice.
Import /export
this idea
Or a distorted flower moment
Stored in the 2-dimensional
Immortalised with sun block ultra
Enter installation: nature pastiche -
and know that nature is the only artwork
that needs to be copied
See it tied up on centre stage
acting courages under bondage
mariposa puma in an AI glass cage
Smells like honey and heavy like national anthems
Enter room of souvenirs.
To smell the nostalgia incense
toasting on the insides of your mind. Only.
Breathe in air freshener.
Ocean breeeeeeeze promises.
Out.
Coco, Call them relics -
objects made to survive this time;
made to outlive the phenomena they each represent.
Coco, recall your sentimental interest. In bio.
Enter plastic echo of landscapes.
Understand that ghost prints
are exhausted versions of reality
Play the simulated sun
- as it rises and sets two times each hour.
Repeat.
And know that in landscaping;
the result to the equation is always (in) the horizon.
Hold on to this image. Forever.
Think about:
Reproducing beauty
Recycling Beauty
Maintaining beauty
Immortalising beauty
Narrating beauty Owning beauty?
See it executed behind plexi and jokes
Exit room of synthetic reproductions
Count the repetitions under their tongue
as you continue to conzoooome.
Import / export the ideal landscape
The perfect keepsake
For a romantic era lived in acid hungover bodies
Fridge magnet memory
filed under “picturesque tradition”
Exit luxury shop
And forget your innocence.
Blow out expensive incense and deal.