Henrik HÃ¥kansson 'The Circle of a Square and the Effect of a Butterfly'
I reflect on this work as part of a circle, a cyclic reflection of the movement of a Butterfly in flight and its proposed effect towards the Nature of a System of controlled environments.
Henrik HÃ¥kansson
Since the 1990s, Henrik HÃ¥kansson has developed an international art practice which is rooted in an exploration of the natural world. Through observations, he creates sequences that function as a dialogue between environment and space, focusing on the conceptual theme of time, deterministic laws and living organisms. Recalling his earlier work, Out of The Black into the Blue - a butterfly breeding environment realised for the 1997 Venice Biennale, HÃ¥kansson continues his exploration into the symbolic value and matters of butterflies, as well as ecology and the environment — the butterfly as receptor being amongst some of the truest indicators of climate change.
The butterflies were filmed at 8430 frames per second in HÃ¥kansson’s garden using only sunlight and the void space of a Perspex box — its dimensions based upon a series boxes created by Donald Judd in 1975. The eye of the camera and the defined space of the Perspex box setting the scenery and perimeters in which HÃ¥kansson captures the pattern of flight and the uncertain effect created by the sequential movement of the butterflies’ flight from one point to another, within a limited and undefined space in relation to time.
The cycle of this new body of work is a deeply personal reflection for HÃ¥kansson, who started observing and collecting insects at the age of four, when he collected his first moth, a Privet Hawk. For the exhibition, HÃ¥kansson has made three new works in historical reference to Josef Albers, in search of the relations and origins of colours. Prints from the ‘Homage to the Square’ series, printed in 1977 and 1968 (the latter being coincidentally the year of HÃ¥kansson’s birth) become the support for a pinned butterfly, personally collected by HÃ¥kansson in the 1980s. Making references and analysis to the system of squares and colours in the prints, acts as a Morse code of colour signals as well as the definition of space and time: there is no beginning or end, but a continuation.
Henrik HÃ¥kansson
4 LED screens playing silent, colour, looped films, 2 aluminium poles, wiring, cables, grips, perspex box, index paper
Dimensions variable
Vintage Joseph Albers silkscreen print (Homage to the Square - Renewed Hope) in 4 colours on wove paper. Printed in the year 1977 after the original artwork from 1962 by the Ateliers Trautwein in Recklinghausen-Bottrop, West-Germany. Published by the Landesmuseum in Munster, West-Germany. Pieris napi (Green veined white) butterfly (collected by the artist on JULY.26, 1983, S.GO. AR / N 57.9226085, E 18.9139087). Perspex box
70 x 70 cm, 27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in unframed; 75 x 75 x 8 cm, 29 1/2 x 29 1/2 x 3 1/8 in framed
Vintage Joseph Albers silkscreen print (Homage to the Square - White Line Squares). Printed after the original in Germany by Atelier Herbert Geier and published in 1968 by George Wittenborn of New York. There is another composition on the back, as issued. Pieris napi (Green veined white) butterfly (collected by the artist on JULY.28, 1989, S.GO FARDUME / N 57.7952198, E18.9274753). Perspex box
70 x 70 cm, 27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in unframed; 75 x 75 x 8 cm, 29 1/2 x 29 1/2 x 3 1/8 in framed
Vintage Joseph Albers silkscreen print (Homage to the Square) Printed after the original in Germany by Atelier Herbert Geier and published in 1968 by George Wittenborn of New York. There is another composition on the back, as issued. Gonepteryx rhamni (common brimstone) butterfly (collected by the artist on JULY.17, 1983 S.GO. BUTTLE at site coordinate N57.3575077, E18.4820905) Perspex box
70 x 70 cm, 27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in unframed; 75 x 75 x 8 cm, 29 1/2 x 29 1/2 x 3 1/8 in framed
Henrik HÃ¥kansson (b.1968 Helsingborg, Sweden) lives and works in Berlin and Falkenberg.
HÃ¥kansson has a prolific history of international exhibitions, selected solo shows include: ‘One Hundred and One Pieces of a Tree (Norwegian Wood)’, KODE 15, Bergen (2019); ‘A Tree (Suspended)’, Kunstverein Freiburg (2016); ‘A Forest Divided’, Lunds Konsthall, Lund (2012); ‘The End’, The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2011); ‘AUG. 26, 2003 - AUG. 27, 2003 (Vespa vulgaris)’, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2007); ‘Three Days of the Condor’, Kettles Yard, Cambridge (2007); and 'Through the Woods to Find the Forest, in Tropico-Vegétal (LOST IN PARADISE)', Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2006).
In 2018 HÃ¥kansson participated in the 11th edition of the Taipei Biennale, with a new film installation, ’Blinded by the Light’. His works have been included in numerous group exhibitions including: IHME Festival, Helsinki (2018); the 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014); dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel (2012); Yokohama Triennale (2011); ‘La carte d'après nature’, curated by Thomas Demand, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco (2011); ‘Radical Nature’, Barbican, London (2009); and São Paulo Biennale (2003).
In 1997 HÃ¥kansson represented Sweden in the 47th Venice Biennale and participated in the central Arsenale exhibition, ‘Utopia Station’ at the 50th Venice Biennale, Venice 2003.