Maniacal Laugher 2

11.10.2003 - 28.11.2003
Maniacal laugher 2
”conversations in lines”

William Anthony and Anne Bennike
 
Gallery Kirke Sonnerup has the pleasure of presenting an exhibition of works by William Anthony and Anne Bennike.

Following the exhibition Maniacal laughter in Kampur in Iceland in 2002, Anthony (USA, b. 1930) and Bennike (DK, b. 1974) have again joined forces to work on a series of drawings, where they let their artistic expressions play together and create new and surprising works. Their divergent but yet related expressions communicate across their difference in age and cultural background.

By exchanging drawings in letters sent back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, William and Anne have created works together where their motifs join in an almost symbiotic relationship. Anne Bennike says of the collaboration that ”when Bill and I draw together, it is as if our communication is enhanced; we battle and dive under the surface with a new language and toss the ball back and forth in letters between the USA and Denmark.” As a supplement to these collaborations they also exhibit their own separate works.
 
William Anthony’s line is frail, and the form reminds one of a young boy’s drawings executed with an adult’s intelligence, often with a sense of humor and references to others’ works of art. William Anthony has drawn for Andy Warhol’s magazines, among others. His style is at the same time precise and hesitant, subtle and direct; a style which he has practised for over 40 years.
 
Anne Bennike is preoccupied with the underground scene in Copenhagen, but has also travelled extensively in Europe, Russia, the USA and Africa, and investigated the off-side as well as artistic scenes, where she sees tendencies that inspire her to work with the themes of the exposed and investigative. Corporal and dream-like motifs run through her works in an interplay between fiction and reality.

The two artists have joined together around their common interest in drawing and their expressions, that both play with the childish and the mature. Their first collaboration in Iceland has developed into a friendship, that has made them want to show a Danish audience what has arisen from this extraordinary meeting. For both artists, the collaboration has been a shift from their own artistic positions; for William as the experienced, established artist, and for Anne as the young artist who is only just establishing herself on the art scene. They exhibit together in Stalke Gallery’s new space Gallery Kirke Sonnerup, which they find is a good initiative to show international contemporary art in lovely countryside surroundings, an oasis compared to the rush of the big city. And therefore also the best location for Maniacal laugher 2.
 
Maniacal laugher has been arranged by Gunnar Ørn and Sam Jedig .
 





Return to list