DAGSRESTER OG ANDRE PRESSEDE CITRONER

(HYPNIC JERK)

‘Hypnic Jerk’ is the involuntary twitch made by the body on the brink of falling asleep. It’s believed to be a neurological leftover from when humans slept in trees, recalibrating the body’s sense of balance at the vulnerable moment of slipping into sleep mode. The person on the carpet is tripping over a bump in another carpet, hanging mid-fall, disconnected body fragments twirling in all directions - losing the sense of self. In the same way, when awake, situations sometimes present themselves where we are yanked out of our autopilot mode. Aha-moments confronting us with which lane we actually wish to follow in life; forcing us to recalibrate our control systems.

The sculptures in the series ‘Appendix 1-7’ are three-dimensional fragments sprung from the two-dimensional imagery of Hypnic Jerk. If Hypnic Jerk was the fall, then this is the scattered aftermath. The self has dissolved into something more abstract. Each ceramic sculpture has a bracketed sub-title, named after people who have been sparring partners, moral compasses and listening ears during a time of personal recalibration. Because if the self is a core, surely that core is extended into a sphere consisting of our relations - like an atom made up by not only a central nucleus of protons and neutrons but also the orbiting electrons holding the whole thing together. We are more liquid than the barriers of our physical self, when asleep and when awake.

at Gammelgaard, Herlev.

With Emily Gernild (paintings).

Photos taken by Kevin Malcolm, SKITSE and Gammelgaard.

2021.