Tripping the Light

“Ritual objects have a certain mysticism embedded in my recollection,” explains Danish-born, Berlin-based artist Kirstine Roepstorff of her latest body of work Illuminating Shadows. “It's a kind of memory which I relate to but it is not mine. I compare it with a shadow connected to me, but independent of me.” Roepstorff’s latest relief collages and installations incorporate transparent screens, mobiles and cut-outs, as well as African artifacts (including fetish and votive figures) borrowed from Haus der Völker, a local private collection in the Tyrolian town of Schwaz, Austria. In the gallery, when illuminated with a hard spotlight, these mixed-media monoliths project shadows throughout the space and onto the viewer. “I was looking at the notion of a shadow, which I see as the place for absolute potential—a dark area that has not been investigated yet," explains Roepstorff, noting that a recurrent image in her work is the forest. In fulfillment of this metaphor, the stark lighting creates sharp, organic silhouettes from the irregular shapes of the installations, which are captured in portable form in the tear-out-and-share postcards—premiered exclusively here—that she has created for the exhibition catalog. Much like souvenirs from a seaside holiday, the postcards are “the immaterial after effects of the show,” says Roepstorff. Illuminating Shadows is being exhibited from April 30 at Peres Projects Berlin.