Helen Nymann

"The dancer, through the Butoh spirit, confronts the origins of his fears: a dance which crawls towards the bowel of the earth."

- Tatsumi Hijikata

Fridman Gallery is pleased to present, INSCRIBED Oh Locus Locus the debut solo exhibition in the US of Danish artist Helene Nymann (b. 1982, Copenhagen, Denmark). Nymann's work investigates the notion of embodied knowledge and speculates how choreography can stimulate memory. Nymann creates performative environments in which moving image and sound develop transformative states of consciousness, through slow and repetitive sequencing.

With the work INSCRIBED Oh Locus Locus Nymann creates a physical self-awareness in the audience who, as a result of its scale and presence may become participants in the work. Memoria And Other Aftermaths is more concerned with provoking a self-conscious, almost mirroring engagement due to its nearly still, single-frame composition. In both works, the protagonist is a classically trained dancer from the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen. The ballet dancer typically works under clear instructions from a choreographer. Nymann, however, subverts these cognitive prerequisites by requesting the dancer simply respond to his immediate environment and its materials through his unconscious, without a determined outcome.

In particular, Nymann explores strategies related to Butoh, a form of dance developed in 1950s Japan reflecting the country’s post-war society, including the aftermath of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Butoh translates from Japanese as “darkness” and is traditionally performed in a slow, unconscious state of expression in which performers learn to “empty” their bodies and minds. INSCRIBED Oh Locus Locus poignantly investigates how emotions such as trauma are often inextricably related to wider social conditions and how these become literally embodied.

Helene Nymann received a BFA (Hons) from Goldsmiths College, University of London and an MFA in Fine Art from Malmø Art Academy, Sweden. Having shown work at The Lincoln Centre, David Rubinstein Atrium, DNA Gallery, MACRO Museo D´arte Contemporanea, Nicolai Wallner Gallery, Den Frie Udstillingsbygning and Lunds Konsthall, Nymann is currently based in New York, where she is attending the Studio Residence Program at Pioneer Works.