April 16 - May 30, 2015
Opening reception Thursday April 16, 6 - 8 pm
303 Gallery is pleased to present "All We Need Is Inside," our third exhibition of new work from Jeppe Hein.
On this occasion, Hein presents a collection of works in disparate media, encouraging viewers to enter into their own inner dialogues. Focusing his attention on the awareness of one's own body and mind, Hein creates an experiential narrative in which the viewer becomes gracefully cognizant of his own being through the traversal of the exhibition space and its signifying works.
Upon entering the space, a glowing neon mirror announces ALL WE NEED IS INSIDE, imposing a prism through which the viewer processes the surrounding space. Turning away from this work is an encounter with a series of Breathing Watercolors, in which Hein's own breath guides the application of blue stripes painted directly onto the white wall. The intensity of color, deep and vigorous at the beginning of each stroke, gradually fades into a pale shade toward the bottom of each stripe, physically recording the process of air gradually escaping from the body. Echoing this work is Breath, in which Hein's own breath is encased in glass spheres lying on the floor.
In the center of the gallery, Sine Curve implicates the viewer's perception in the creation of the work. Its multifaceted reflection produces an alien experience of the gallery space, disorienting the subject of its reflection and forcing a new type of environmental consciousness. Its sculptural shape is reminiscent of the sinus rhythm, a diagrammatic recording of the normal beating of a heart. In another mirror work, Invisible Eye, Hein has placed a flickering candle behind a two-way mirror. This elemental object of ritual is subverted by Hein's intervention, as candle and viewer merge into one another, resulting in the placement of a flaming third eye onto the viewer's forehead. This suggestion of enlightenment, both physical and spiritual, looks toward an enigmatic and foreign sense of being, implicating the viewer not only in an encounter with an artwork, but in a confrontation with an obscure and unknown self.
Jeppe Hein's "PLEASE TOUCH THE ART," a solo exhibition in collaboration with the Public Art Fund, will open May 16 at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
In November of this year, he will open a solo show at Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany. Recent exhibitions include “A Smile For You” (2013) at Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm and Wanås Konst, Sweden; “Robert-Jacobsen-Preisträger” (2012) Museum Würth, Bad Mergentheim, Germany; “360 ̊” (2011) at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; “1xMuseum, 10xRooms, 11xWorks” (2010) at Neues Museum Nürnberg; Distance (2010) at IMA - Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis; “Sense City” (2009) at AroS Museum of Art, Århus, Denmark. Permanent installations of his works were realized in 2014 at Musikkens Hus, Aalborg, Denmark and the New Media Library Högskolan Dalarna, Falun, Sweden. His works are held in institutional collections such as the Tate Gallery, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Hein lives and works in Berlin.