Lasse Schmidt Hansen

04. November – 09. Dezember, 2006

The possibility of failure and deviation from the norm play a crucial role in Lasse Schmidt Hansen's conceptual take on familiar and everyday objects. Interested in the subversive potential of standardized systems, his work is informed by a deceptive simplicity behind which one discovers a playful and idiosyncratic logic.

One wall of the long hallway leading to the main space of croy nielsen is covered by wallpaper. The minimal design consists of thin horizontal lines, but since the paper changes when wet they are not completely in sync. The irregularity brought forward in this work is inherent in the principle behind wallpaper itself and it is characteristic for Schmidt Hansen that he turns a potential error into the premise of his work.

In the main space a row of strips originating from a vertical blind hangs from the ceiling. Normally the function of these cheap standard blinds - often found in banks and offices - relies on an efficient system securing that every strip turns in the same direction. Schmidt Hansen has 'freed' the strips, allowing them to turn wherever and thereby created a mobile. Functionality has been sacrificed in a formal play with universal forms.

The references to minimal sculpture that are conjured up through the serial arrangements in Schmidt Hansen's work become more explicit in 'Untitled Cubes'. In this case he reconstructs a classic mistake made when planning to build a perfect cube: the four white boxes have each been made out of boards all measuring 50 x 50 centimetres. Each of them represents a possible variation and minimal perfectionism is countered by calculated mistake.

Lasse Schmidt Hansen was born in 1978 in Albertslund, Denmark and lives and works in Frankfurt, where he graduated from the Städelschule this spring. Earlier this year he has exhibited at Grazer Kunstverein, Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York and at the KBH Kunsthal in Copenhagen.