All Together Now
A group exhibition
@Seoul Museum of Art Nanji Exhibition Hall, Seoul, KR
11.11.22 – 13.11.22
For the exhibition All Together Now, Emmy Skensved showed an installation that she produced while participating in the Seoul Museum of Art's Nanji Residency program.
Through her work, Skensved frequently explores the ways that social exchange and interdependence are necessary for human survival. She employs the formats of “outdoor” or “adventure” gear because of the way that the objects relate to the body in their scale, shape, or intended purpose. In her installations, she often arranges objects (like sleeping bags or camping stools) into groups or pairs, imagining them as stand-ins for bodies, in order to represent a social gathering or an exchange between people.
This particular installation consists of a series of hand-sewn soft sculptures that resemble portaledges (a type of hanging tent used by mountain climbers). Since climbing is a risky sport often done in tandem, which requires cooperation, a high level of trust and good communication, portaledges speak aptly to the themes of interdependence and survival that she aims to address.
The title for the series is “Holed Up,” which is an English phrasal verb denoting a refuge or “safe space,” but can also be read as a play on words— pointing to the fact that the pieces are literally suspended.