Danish artist John Kørner follows world news in his paintings with an almost journalistic vigour. Through his abstract watercolours, he has addressed everything from the war in Afghanistan to Danish sex workers. He once said that if art fails to connect with something socially relevant, it has closed too tightly around itself.
If this is the case, his new exhibition is thrown wide open. This week, Victoria Miro gallery (who have championed the Copenhagen-based artist’s work for a decade) launch 'Apple Bombs', a series of Kørner's newest 'socially relevant' works. Unusually, these paintings aren't intended to represent a single situation, place, or political moment. ‘This week, they might represent the Middle East,’ Kørner explains, ‘and next week, somewhere completely different. It’s up to you.’
One thing’s certain – the paintings’ locations are successfully ambiguous. Icy peaks give way to arid landscapes, which sit side by side with dateless architecture. ‘I find abstraction to be the best tool I have to address the serious matters I want to convey,’ Kørner explains. ‘In this instance, I didn’t want to literally paint soldiers.’ His intention was to give the paintings a universal quality, ‘so different audiences can add their own experiences and stories’.
Instead of soldiers, Kørner depicts beekeepers. On why he made this sideways move, he notes, ‘I am interested in the expression, “the land of milk and honey”. Beekeepers try and protect the good life, the sweet life.’ And so he paints beekeepers innocently tending their charges, seemingly oblivious to the brooding, war-torn skies overhead.
But why apples? ‘Apples are about the purest, sweetest thing I can think of,' Kørner explains, 'and apples also have an iconic place in history.' The speed in which Kørner reels off the biblical and mythical background of the apple suggests some serious thought has gone into this motif, and it’s inclusion isn’t to be taken lightly.
For Kørner, the apple is a ‘true fruit', and the fact that they are seen descending hypnotically all over his paintings represents ‘a fall from grace’. His intention was for the beekeepers to feel overwhelmed and ‘stunned’ by the oppressive apple bombs – which become sickly and saccharine as they roll in spilled honey.
It seems there are metaphors within metaphors in Kørner’s complex new exhibition – like the great journalistic artist that he is, Kørner allows us to read into them as much as we like, ensuring that they nag at our imagination long after we've left the gallery.
The paintings are not intended to represent a single situation, place, or political moment. Pictured: installation view
Instead, Kørner intended the image to represent something more universal, that different audiences could apply their own experiences to. Pictured: Apple Bombs, 2016
One thing’s certain – the paintings’ locations are successfully ambiguous. Icy peaks give way to arid landscapes, which sit side by side with dateless architecture
Kørner explains, ‘I find abstraction to be the best tool I have to address the serious matters I want to convey’
For Kørner, the apple is a ‘true fruit', and the rhythmical descending apples that wash over his paintings represent ‘a fall from grace’
INFORMATION
‘John Kørner: Apple Bombs’ is on view until 14 May. For more information, visit the Victoria Miro website
Photography courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
ADDRESS
Victoria Miro
16 Wharf Road
London, N1 7RW
-
What is the role of fragrance in contemporary culture, asks a new exhibition at 10 Corso ComoMilan concept store 10 Corso Como has partnered with London creative agency System Preferences to launch Olfactory Projections 01
-
Jack White's Third Man Records opens a Paris pop-upJack White's immaculately-branded record store will set up shop in the 9th arrondissement this weekend
-
Designer Marta de la Rica’s elegant Madrid studio is full of perfectly-pitched contradictionsThe studio, or ‘the laboratory’ as de la Rica and her team call it, plays with colour, texture and scale in eminently rewarding ways
-
'We need to be constantly reminded of our similarities' – Jonathan Baldock challenges the patriarchal roots of a former Roman temple in LondonThrough use of ceramics and textiles, British artist Jonathan Baldock creates a magical and immersive exhibition at ‘0.1%’ at London's Mithraum Bloomberg Space
-
Discover Rotimi Fani-Kayode's fluid photographs of the queer male body, on show in London‘Rotimi-Fani Kayode: The Studio – Staging Desire’ at Autograph ABP celebrates the work of the Nigerian-born photographer
-
Saatchi Gallery is in full bloom with floral works from Vivienne Westwood, Marimekko, Buccellati and more‘Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture’ at Saatchi Gallery, London, explores the relationship between creatives and their floral muses, and spans from fashion and jewellery to tattoos
-
'I want to get into these images and perfume them': Linder's retrospective opens at the Hayward Gallery'Linder: Danger Came Smiling' gathers fifty years of the artist's work at the Hayward Gallery. We meet the punk provocateur ahead of her first retrospective
-
Tasneem Sarkez's heady mix of kitsch, Arabic and Americana hits LondonArtist Tasneem Sarkez draws on an eclectic range of references for her debut solo show, 'White-Knuckle' at Rose Easton
-
‘A call to action for more authentic expressions of working-class life’: a London show reframes working-class BritainLondon exhibition ‘Lives Less Ordinary’, at Two Temple Place, challenges age-old stereotypes
-
‘Dr Tetris’ on the biggest ever iteration of the puzzle in LondonTetris comes to 360-degree, 23,000 sq ft, 16k LED screens in London; Craig McLean speaks to Henk Rogers, the man who’s kept the game alive
-
Never-before-seen Barbara Hepworth works go on show in landmark exhibitionIn ‘Barbara Hepworth: Strings’, various Hepworth sculptures will be exhibited in public for the first time, at Piano Nobile, London
