Jeannette Ehlers

Work for Live Art Danmark
2016: “Black Matter” at Live Art for Børn in Aalborg

Black Matter
Jeannette Ehlers showed “Black Matter” at Live Art for Børn 2016 in Ålborg. The piece consists of a series of black and white photos, projected on a  screen and eventually, a large balloon that is slowly inflated in front of it. Like brief flashes of memory, moving and changing with the movement of the balloon, images of black struggle, the covers of records by black artists and, most of all, an almost endless stream of portraits of black women and man, flow before the viewers eyes, in the darkened space. The piece ends when the balloon, stretched to its limits, bursts with a loud bang, and we are left in complete darkeness.

About the Artist
Jeannette Ehlers’ (b. 1973) works revolve around the Danish slave trade in colonial times as one of their main themes. The artist’s own ethnic background, with a Danish mother and a Father from Trinidad, W.I., adds this very important layer to the works. Through digitally manipulated photographs and video installations, she puts The Triangular Slave Trade under the microscope. A very experimental nature generally characterizes Jeannette’s work with digital image manipulation often included in the artist’s photographic and video based works. The artist has studied at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and graduated in 2006.

More info on Jeanette’s webpage.