The title of the exhibition Scalp by Per Ahlmann shown at Galleri KANT (Copenhagen, May 23 – June, 2014) is a verb, not a noun. It means to remove a person’s scalp as a trophy of victory, or fictively, to remove something as close as possible. The title is apt, for the work (at least the signature one) is hair raising. It seems to have been made of bone and gristle, a body part not yet identifiable. It is sparse, powerful and visceral.
Ahlmann’s installation comprises detached and closely-cropped ceramic parts, some small, some large, each with a trophy-like quality. Each has its individual characteristics but they communicate directly with one another rather than speaking to the audience. Their specific presentation challenges the autonomy of the individual works.
Ahlmann combines organic references to body and nature with a designed and geometric language that is almost industrial or mathematical. This produced clashes in his personal artistic expression, a plank Ahlmann walks in the white cube space with his glazed trophies as witnesses to risk.
His use of process is direct but deeply invested. As in all of Ahlmann’s work, the technical involvement with the material (color and the glaze) is critical and each step forward becomes the basis for new experiments. Fragments of narratives and traces of something recognizable arise out of these experiments. His approach is not overstated, if anything it’s effective because of its understatement.
Per Ahlmann was born in 1967 in Denmark and graduated in 1995 from the Department of Unika at the Danish Design School. He has exhibited in numerous museums and galleries in Denmark, Europe and Asia. He is represented in private and public collections including; New Carlsberg Foundation, Danish Arts Foundation and the Design Museum Denmark. In 2007, he received the Annie & Otto Johs Detlef Ceramics Prize and in 2011 the Danish Arts Foundation’s (DAF) three-year scholarship. When he was awarded the DAF honor the jury called him, “A rare sculptor, who is completely one with his ceramic material. Form, content, glaze and colour simply can not be imagined without each other.” True.
Garth Clark is the Chief Editor of CFile.
Above image: Per Ahlmann, Untitled (Scalp) #4, 2014, 76 x 60 x 22 cm
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Per Ahlmann, Untitled (Scalp) #7, 2014, variable dimensions
Per Ahlmann, Untitled (Scalp) # 6, 12 x 71 x 70 cm
Per Ahlmann, Untitled (Scalp) #5, 2014, variable dimensions
Per Ahlmann, Untitled (Scalp) #1, 2014, 96.5 x 52 x 44 cm
Per Ahlmann, Transitu-Sub, 2013, 111 x 37 x 34 cm
Per Ahlmann, Untitled (Scalp) #3, 170 x 260 x 7 cm
Installation view of Scalp by Per Ahlmann.
How to send you some work of mine?
Hi Rina.
Just now I see your comment. Better late than never…….or?
If you still want to, please send me some of your works to mail@perahlmann.dk That would be nice.
Kind regards
Per Ahlmann
as installation it works so good.
Hi Talia,
Thank you very much for your kind comment. Very motivating
Kind regards
Per Ahlmann