Rose Eken (DK)

Tableau is a large-scale ceramic installation by Rose Eken. Through an extensive research period Eken corresponded with contemporary artists around the world and received photos of their studios, working tables and tools of the trade.  Based on this material Eken has created a large meta studio in ceramics – a fictional atelier – where every object refers back to a specific artist’s practice and working environment.  The collected installation transcends the individual artist and speaks to our general notion of how art is produced and experienced, the artist’s role and our perception of the art world.  Tableau mimics our collective idea of what the artist’s studio should be, but at the same time it also it challenges the very same notion; the atelier as being a mystical and almost sacred place for creation. In Rose Eken’s Tableau the studio is also a workspace where things are organized according to routines, personality and practice. A lab for creation that reflects both inspiration and labor.

In Eken’s studio you find Richard Colman’s coffee mug filled with pens and pencils, on the side of the mug an image of a crab and the text “DON’T BOTHER ME – I’M CRABBY. Jonathan Meese’s collection of kids’ musical boxes. John Copeland’s spatula and paint tubes stained with his signature pallet, his collection of vintage Playboy magazines and old axe. Michael Kvium’s taxidermized magpie. Fryd Frydendahl’s Canon EOS D5 Camera. Wes Lang’s collection of old wooden tobacco pipes. Erik Parker’s transparent buckets of ingenious labeled paint with titles such as “REAL TRUTH SHADOW” and “UP THE BEACH.” Eken’s own worn out boots, paint splattered jacket and containers of ceramic glaze. 

Tableau is one of Rose Eken’s largest installation to date. Comprised of hundreds of ceramic objects; brushes, buckets of paint, box cutters, towers of tape, clusters of books and magazines, half-finished cups of coffee, cigarette butts, ghetto blasters, laptops, Iphones and all the small personal effects we bring into our workspace to inspire, remind us of something or make us smile. 

Tableau was acquired by Aros Museum of Art in 2015 and is now part of their permanent collection.

Courtesy of Rose Eken, V1 Gallery and ARoS. 

Photo courtesy of Jan Søndergaard and V1 Gallery.