Subpoena
2022-2023
Heidi Nikolaisen
Subpoena is about which authorities we listen to, and how we give ourselves and others a space to listen to our bodies, in a world where the digital and the presence of technologies leaves its mark on our understanding of intimacy. How we bring the value of calm, health, and compassion into technologies as well as into our relationships and into ourselves.
The word subpoena translates to something like “under penalty” and refers to a legal document which is a written summons to testify before court. The title of the exhibition and content are, among other things, inspired by a recent episode in which a director of a major cryptocurrency received a subpoena in connection with the currency crash.
The work NFTEA (and These Littles) consists of dried rosehip shells and ryegrass, which has been cultivated and grown in the bedroom of the artist and partner. The dried rosehip is gathered on a windy and rainy day close to the artist’s residence in Aarhus. By opening some production methods using the body, that consider treatment and the use of nature’s resources, the exhibition also asks questions about how we handle the ultimate authority, which is the health of our surrounding climate. With the title NFTEA, the work refers a bit cheekily to the hyped concept within the digital economy, the NFT, and opens the possibility of seeing the connection between the value that is created online and which is created in the quiet unsupervised personal reflection space, as well as the value of the slow transfer. During the exhibition period, it is possible for the curator and visitors to take some rosehip shells home, save them to make tea for themselves or when visiting, or use them as they wish.
Præge, Let = Form, which can be viewed online, is an animated meditation video made in collaboration with the 3D studio Quad Studio from Aarhus. The video is a further processing of the sculptural work Præge, (Pre.servation, Shield of Fiction) made in collaboration with the musician Anja Lahrmann for the album Fit for Fiction.
Heidi Nikolaisen (DK, b. 1987) is a visual artist whose work includes text, digital and sculptural objects, and installations. Her work seeks to promote a sense of compassion and calmness as well as activate a sense of agency to digital and technological concepts.
She produces shapes and structures that draw upon literary, spiritual, economic, and commercial stories and aesthetics. Through her work she advocates a need for mutual nurture and affirmation on different levels. Her work actively seeks to inspire more sustainable artistic practices as she is transitioning into working with organic materials grown in her own home and foraged/found items. Her work is guided by a list of principles for sustainable production that include commitment to the idea of regeneration, good health of earth and beings, carefulness in process, mindfulness in handling of materials as well as promoting non-discriminatory, decolonial and intersectional work relations.
Heidi Nikolaisen studied Comparative Literature at Copenhagen University and holds an MFA from Funen Art Academy. She has participated in various volunteer work camps and activist cultural exchange programs in Estonia, Cuba, and the US. She has visited the spiritual island of Olkhon in Siberia, has completed a Vipassana silent retreat, worked with gardening in a buddhist retreat center in England and lived and studied in Moscow and Lisbon.
Heidi is based in Aarhus and is chairperson of the studio collective Corporum. She is currently exploring menstrual cycle awareness and meditation practices and studying for a degree in natural medicine.
Associated is audio from Anja Tietze Lahrmann (b. 1987), Copenhagen-based composer, producer and sound artist working with various media. Her work includes sound for theatre, installation, and dance, while also composing music and performing under her solo moniker Excelsior.
Curated and organized by RUM два
@rumdva
Special thanks to Center424, Belgrade AIR and BYZART
The exhibition is in the window of Center424, Prizenska 9, Belgrade, Serbia, from 12/12-22 until 18/12-22/part 2 from 16/1-23 until 22/1-23
These Little
Metal plate with rosehip
NFTEA
Basket with gathered rosehip tea on homegrown ryegrass
Præge
QR-code, 3D-animated video
Photo: Bosko Begovic
