At Gether Contemporary, we are incredibly proud to conclude a fantastic year of exhibitions with Christine Overvad Hansen's third solo exhibition in the gallery, Sleepers. Christine Overvad Hansen first exhibited at Gether Contemporary in 2017 alongside Lea Guldditte Hestelund and has since presented solo exhibitions 'Punch Bowl Portal' (2018) and 'Figura Carpool' (2020).

Inspired by various sources, including espionage strategies and the small emperor moth family, Overvad Hansen unfolds a sculptural narrative of observation and pretense in her upcoming exhibition, Sleepers, which serves as both a defense mechanism and a tool of power. The works revolve around the double meaning of the exhibition title, which can loosely be translated as "the sleepers" and "moles" - those who feign loyalty but actually spy for others. This is expressed in several of the exhibition's works, portraying female figures who appear to be at rest and passive, but upon closer inspection, are strangely absorbed in observing their surroundings and the other sculptural bodies in the space, as well as the visitors.

Exhibition text by Sophia Handler:

If we believe in destiny, we believe in a material and a working process. A unique thread, spun for each life, measured out, and ultimately cut. It is said that destiny is a craft, carried out by three goddesses; the sisters Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Mythical female figures, as shown in Christine Overvad Hansen’s solo exhibition, Sleepers, reveal the power inherent in observing, overseeing, and bearing witness to life, both our own and others’

Clotho spins the thread of destiny. Everything, and the stories of everything, originates from her. But she doesn’t see it as a beginning. The thread is thin but secure in her hands. She has access to a soft and strong material from the womb, and her threads become soft and strong like that. Clotho’s face is open as she works; she knows what she’s doing, doesn’t need to exert herself or even concentrate much. Her forehead is free from wrinkles; there’s no tension between her eyebrows

Lachesis measures the thread of destiny by eye. The thread is taut, loose, uneven, fast, and quivering, feeling almost alive as it slips through her fingers. Yet, she knows she can control it. Even if nothing is entirely precise. “It is what it is,” she thinks to herself and smiles. But she doesn’t see it as a process. She leans slightly forward, but her spine is as pliant as the thread itself, no joints locking, and she never needs to change her position

Atropos likes to say to herself: “That’s enough.” She says it quietly, with a dry voice, yet her sisters are startled every time. The sound of the scissors is abrupt but graceful, like a bird’s chirping, when Atropos cuts a thread of destiny. Sometimes, she closes her eyes as she cuts, so she doesn’t see the length of the thread that falls at her feet. The thread already dissolves as it descends through the air. Atropos cuts on intuition. It’s the scissors’ irregular sound and the “enough” voice that runs like a stream through an old village from the depths of her brain to the crack in her mouth, guiding her movements. But she doesn’t see it as an ending

The threads form patterns, reminding us how close we always are to touching another destiny. But in our mortal hands, the material of destiny is invisible, reminding us that sight is our most powerful sense. A female figure appears as if she has laid herself to rest on the eyes that usually rest on her. They are not her eyes, and yet they are. She changes appearance with the light. Made of resin, we see the light passing through her, and it reminds us that no human is impenetrable, that light and glances can also pass through skin

In her sculptural and performative practice Christine Overvad Hansen (b. 1988) often combines classical narratives with phenomena from our modern reality. Her works are like melted time machines, where figures from Greek and ancient mythology meet the infrastructure of the capitalist society, and where steel and aluminum depict the unpredictable movement patterns of the living body. At the core of her practice lies the exploration of the performative potentials of different materials and how a material can be used as a means in various situations. By studying and challenging the characters of materials, she seeks to create the ideal conditions for sculptural encounters to open up a discussion of the many physical and mental states, relationships, and power dynamics of humanity, across time and space

The exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation and Statens Værksteder for kunst