In the Project Space, Honor Fraser and The Danish Arts Council are pleased to present Shipsearching, a new installation by artist Mie Olise. Part of Olise’s ongoing project, A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks, which explores the artist’s own family history and experiences on the Island of Mors in relationship to characters from the fictional writings of Aksel Sandemose, Shipsearching explores the intertwined nature of truth and fiction, history and memory, and the personal and the collective. Manifesting as a large-scale wooden structure installation that viewers will be able to enter, Shipsearching at first appears to be an abandoned edifice waiting to be rediscovered. Upon entry, viewers will encounter a video projection depicting a fluttering sail—speaking to the intimate and poetic experience of being onboard a ship during a journey, or of traveling and moving between places. The nostalgia of a remembered past is fueled by unfulfilled desires as the sail flutters in one location, never really moving. Functioning as a physical space of transit, the installation asks questions about our understanding of time, reminding us of its vanishing quality and of our personal attempts to reconstitute it.
Mie Olise was born on the Island of Mors, Denmark, in 1974. She received an MA in Architecture from the Aarhus School of Architecture, London in 2001 and an MFA from the Central St. Martins School of Art, London in 2007. She has recently had solo exhibitions at Barbara Davis Gallery, Skive New Museum of Contemporary Art, and DUVE Berlin. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Ystad Museum of Art, Whitstable Biennale, Bloomberg Space, and Saatchi Gallery. In addition to completing a residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Olise has received awards from the Danish Art Council, the Rockwool Foundation, and the Niels Wessel Bagge Art Foundation.
Honor Fraser’s Project Space stages collaborations with local, national, and international artists at all stages of their careers in order to stimulate a generative dialogue between the gallery’s program and the broad landscape of contemporary art. Sometimes operating as a complimentary response, and other times as a counterpoint, the Project Space provides an opportunity to explore, investigate, and expand artistic practices through critical exchanges and dynamic exhibitions.