J&K / Janne Schäfer and Kristine Agergaard
Soul Retrieval
series of sculptures (mixed media), works on paper and text
2017

J&K, Soul Retrieval, installation view, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Soul Retrieval, installation view, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

Soul Retrieval is an installation of sculptures and works on paper departing from a series of time travels, during which J&K have investigated time layers as far back as 75 million years in an experimental “archeological” excavation process.

The sculptures in the show are assembled from a wide variety of materials crafted, found and bought by J&K, forming absurd, surrealistic hybrids hovering between abstraction and figuration. They include hyper-contemporary gadgets such as a home fountain, a tablet or an aroma dispenser combined with ceramics, water colour paintings, papier maché shapes, plastic objects, branches, stones, fossils or wool. J&K regard the sculptures as ‘object-beings’ that bear witness to different layers of time: from the ancient to the contemporary or a not yet lived future. These ‘beings’ can be seen as retrieved from a world of things that are typically considered lifeless. The sculptures are presented alongside the text piece Time Travel Case Log – Soul Retrieval, which is a direct transcription from the artist’s time travel excavation process. 

With Soul Retrieval J&K present a radical vision according to which all that exists contains an active life essence and bears a sense of memory reaching beyond the human understanding of time and linear history. It is an ambitious attempt to surpass imagination and to access a state where objects, animals and other fantastic beings share their insights into the vastness and transitoriness of life. They are telling of death, sex, digestion, wombs, fluids, minerals and unconditional love. The work suggests that anthropocentric notions of cultural and historical identification are temporary constructions that exist parallel to an unfathomable cosmos in constant transformation.

The show took place at Ringsted Galleriet in Denmark during April/May 2017, curated by Morten K Jacobsen and Agnete Bertram.

J&K, Soul Retrieval, installation view, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Soul Retrieval, installation view, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Fuzzy Logos, sculpture (mixed media), 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Fuzzy Logos, sculpture (mixed media), 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Warden of Wealth, sculpture (mixed media), 108x38x38cm, 2017, photo: Tartrup

J&K, Warden of Wealth, sculpture (mixed media), 108x38x38cm, 2017, photo: Tartrup

J&K, I die all the time but I am always the same, mixed media on paper,  36x51cm, 2017, photo: Tartrup

J&K, I die all the time but I am always the same, mixed media on paper, 36x51cm, 2017, photo: Tartrup

J&K, Tombwombhub, sculpture (mixed media), 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Tombwombhub, sculpture (mixed media), 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Starmonger, sculpture (mixed media), 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Starmonger, sculpture (mixed media), 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Primate (No 14), mixed media sculpture, 30x55x12cm, 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Primate (No 14), mixed media sculpture, 30x55x12cm, 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Untitled Reef featuring Bliss Abider, display with water colour on paper, variable sizes, 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Untitled Reef featuring Bliss Abider, display with water colour on paper, variable sizes, 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Venerator, sculpture (mixed media), 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Venerator, sculpture (mixed media), 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Soul Retrieval, installation view, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Soul Retrieval, installation view, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Soul Retrieval, installation view, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Soul Retrieval, installation view, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Time Travel Case Log, printed text, 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen

J&K, Time Travel Case Log, printed text, 2017, photo: M.K. Jakobsen