November 4 - December 21, 2005

It is a great pleasure to be able to present the Danish artist Jesper Dalgaard's first exhibition at Galleri Christina Wilson.

Jesper Dalgaard is known for his science fiction-like landscape sculptures, which function like scientific fantasies linked to materials drawn from the world of model railways. For the exhibition at the gallery, Dalgaard has also created a number of new free-standing works: a variety of geometric figures clad with model grass, miniature pine trees, etc.

Dalgaard has moreover created a number of architectural models, all of which take the role of the artist as their starting-point. We see architectural models of a gallery exhibition, a private home and a mechanical artist's studio. In the studio, Dalgaard has pared the myth of the artist to the bone by emphasising the resident's three basic needs, which appear by turns from the floor, namely: work/easel, food, sleep/bed.

These architectural models may be inhabited by the budding young artists with whom we are presented in Dalgaard's very funny animated film All the way round and back again. Here we see the tragicomic tale of the young artist's path to glory and fame. Once again, we are provided with a glimpse of a world in a remote galaxy where, while the infrastructure is very advanced (you fly around in space cars), a little humanity has clearly been sacrificed on the altar of progress.

In contrast to his earlier exhibitions, Dalgaard's exhibition at Galleri Christina Wilson concentrates more on a kind of parallel world which is not quite as science fiction-like as previously, but in which he, using the same humorous and formal techniques, attempts to examine his own role as a private human being and as an artist. What is it all about, this business of galleries and fame? Does flying high mean you have further to fall?

Jesper Dalgaard has previously held exhibitions in, for example, Ovengaden in Copenhagen, and will be holding forthcoming international exhibitions in St. Petersburg, Russia and Bilbao, Spain. In 2003, Dalgaard was commissioned to decorate Billund Airport with a large free-standing Lego sculpture, which bore a title that is typical of his work I gave permission for a small amount of planting, but after the holiday practically everything has turned green