Malene Hartmann Rasmussen is a Danish artist who lives and works in London and south west France. Her ceramic sculptures and installations draw on myth, fairytale and folklore, presenting monsters, trolls and the mystical beings that lurk in the heart of the forest. But while her themes may be earthy Malene’s execution is pristine and highly finished, like colourful shiny totems made to appeal at a fundamental level. Faces emerge from forest flora, crawling with creatures of the undergrowth. A fantastical monster appears like a devotional statue, an animal sleeping in its mouth behind a row of protective teeth. A nest of vipers weave together in an unsettlingly regular order; a wall of masks presents wild eyed demons like characters from an ancient rite. This is the raw animism of nature as it comes alive in the deepest recesses of the human imagination, and yet there is a mischievous playfulness that makes these characters palatable, almost loveable. In her work Malene probes how the deep allure of the beautiful can make the unsettling almost hypnotically attractive.
Malene works within the field of narrative figurative sculpture and installation. A recurring theme in her work is the forest and the mythological creatures that lurk in the dark woods. She weaves together notions of memories, daydreams and childhood nostalgia into a fairy-tale of her own making. Hartmann Rasmussen’s interest in the forest stems from its recurrence in European literature and myth, ancient cults, pagan rituals, and as a metaphor for the hidden realms of the unconscious mind. Comprising a number of elaborate fragments, she creates tableaux of visual excess through which she seeks to evoke an emotional response in the viewer and actuate their imagination. Her work draws on the idea of animism; that animals and plants have a soul and that rivers, mountains and rocks, if not actually alive, are in some way sentient. She is interested in the human subconscious and strives to create a hyper-real world that addresses this gap between perception and reality. Her ornate ceramics may initially appear excessively sweet, but upon closer inspection reveal themselves as impossible and absurd objects, imbued with the artist’s own dark narrative. As a form of catharsis, the artist tries to exorcise misery, anger, and grief – as if they were demons – emotions which relate to the loss of her father and mother and the memories of a time now passed.
Malene Hartmann Rasmussen studied at the Royal Danish Academy in her native Denmark before relocating to London and receiving an MA at Royal College of Art in 2011. She has exhibited in numerous exhibitions in the United Kingdom and abroad including at Vehbi Koç Foundation, Mesher, Turkey; Michelangelo Foundation, Italy, Fondation Bernardaud, France and CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark. In 2018 she was awarded a residency at the Victoria & Albert Museum, where she produced a body of work inspired by the oeuvre of sixteenth century French potter, Bernard Palissy. She also has a forthcoming solo exhibition at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 2027. Hartmann Rasmussen lives and works in London and south-west France.
