Galería RGR is pleased to present You Are Everything by Jeppe Hein, an exhibition of twenty-two interrelated pieces created between 2015 and 2021. This is the first time the Danish artist exhibits in Latin America. The show’s wall-bound sculptures and free-standing pieces create a unique engagement once faced by the viewer. It illustrates Hein’s artistic approach to generate meaningful encounters and connect individuals with each other as well as with their environment. Though often compared to the work of minimal and conceptual artists from the 1970s, such as Donald Judd, Carl Andre or Robert Morris; Hein’s oeuvre occupies a unique position within the contemporary context of art and its expressiveness. You Are Everything presents colorful artworks in a variety of materials. Nevertheless, both are just a means to convey a much more complex concept that strives to acknowledge the significance of relationship with oneself and with others, as well as tackling the importance of mental health as a pressing concern in this day and age. The selection of artworks show the artist's personal development and encourages self- reflection.
A homonymous piece to the exhibit's title, You Are Everything (2019), attempts to make the viewer aware of its importance not only by stating the obvious implying one is in fact “everything” but unveiling how you are unable to escape your own gaze and hence, how imperative self-care is. The neon box is bounded to the wall and uses powder coated aluminum, neon tubes, two-way mirror, powder coated steel and transformers.
Jeppe Hein has gained notorious international recognition for his signature balloons. You Are Everything features different approaches to the subject matter starting with Mirror Balloons with Tree Trunk (2015) consisting of three balloons placed on birch stem. There are also three colored balloons: Medium yellow and pink, mirror balloon (2020), Light green, medium blue, dark purple mirror balloon (2020) and Dark green and pink mirror balloon (2020).
Mirror Balloons with Tree Trunk, 2015
Glass fiber reinforced plastic, chrome lacquer, magnet, strings (yellow, purple, may green), birch stem
40h x 26w x 26d cm
15 95/127h x 10 30/127w x 10 30/127d in
Edition 1 of 2 AP
Inquire
Colourful Mexico #01, 2021
Glass fiber reinforced plastic, chrome lacquer (coral blue IV, emerald green, medium orange essence, ruby red), magnet, white smoke strings
40h x 26w x 26d cm
15 95/127h x 10 30/127w x 10 30/127d in
Unique
Colourful Mexico #02, 2021
Glass fiber reinforced plastic, chrome lacquer (coral blue IV, emerald green, medium orange essence, ruby red), magnet, white smoke strings
40h x 26w x 26d cm
15 95/127h x 10 30/127w x 10 30/127d in
Unique
Colourful Mexico #03, 2021
Glass fiber reinforced plastic, chrome lacquer (coral blue IV, emerald green, medium orange essence, ruby red), magnet, white smoke strings
40h x 26w x 26d cm
15 95/127h x 10 30/127w x 10 30/127d in
Unique
Colourful Mexico #04, 2021
Glass fiber reinforced plastic, chrome lacquer (coral blue IV, emerald green, medium orange essence, ruby red), magnet, white smoke strings
40h x 26w x 26d cm
15 95/127h x 10 30/127w x 10 30/127d in
Unique
In addition, especially for this exhibition Hein has developed a series titled Colourful Mexico (2021) with five coral blue, emerald green, orange and ruby red unique pieces that follow the style of his signature balloons made with glass fiber, reinforced plastic chrome lacquer magnet and string. Hein’s balloons have the capacity to reconfigure vision and to produce a distorted perspective of their surrounding space through their reflective surfaces.
Continuing the recurrent mirror motif, One, Two, Three (2017), is a free-standing, large-scale sculpture, with a series of vertical columns constructed with high polished stainless steel and aluminium. The mirrored piece immerses the viewer in a labyrinth where reality is dissolved as the spectator moves, raising questions on self-image and human interactions.
Yellow Modified Social Bench (2021) creates a space for meetings and conversations; a place for intercultural communication. The work is activated when visitors engage with it, revealing desire for human contact. This form of interaction that develops between the work of art and the spectators, becomes a public experience. Yet, it does not strike as necessary to have masses engaging with it. If there were only two people, there would automatically be a dialogue between them, the artist and the artwork
Modified Street Light #02, 2021
High grade steel, powder-coated lamp head, LED
394h x 105w x 93d cm
155 2/17h x 41 21/62w x 36 35/57d in
Edition 1 of 2 AP
Inquire
Modified Street Light (2021) is an ode to light understood as truth. The colorful street light reminds the viewers of their childlike selves leading them to unlearn limitations and to remember the playfulness of their true essence. It starts out as an individual experience that later transforms into a collective one, once spectators engage with one and other.
Threefold Perspectives (2019) utilizes high polished stainless steel, aluminium and electric motor. The rotating piece is an invitation to meditate about the passage of time as an inevitable force which should be embraced rather than resisted.
Curved Rhombic Cut, 2021
Mirror foil on aluminium frame
93 x 19 x 93cm
Unique
My Mirror 21, 2021
Mirror foil on aluminium frame
35h x 35w x 4.50d cm
13 46/59h x 13 46/59w x 1 98/127d in
Unique
My Mirror 22, 2021
Mirror foil on aluminium frame
35h x 35w x 4.50d cm
13 46/59h x 13 46/59w x 1 98/127d in
Unique
My Mirror 23, 2021
Mirror foil on aluminium frame
35h x 35w x 4.50d cm
13 46/59h x 13 46/59w x 1 98/127d in
Unique
My Mirror 24, 2021
Mirror foil on aluminium frame
35h x 35w x 4.50d cm
13 46/59h x 13 46/59w x 1 98/127d in
Unique
Taking Lucio Fontana's signature cuts as reference, Curved Rhombic Cut and the My Mirror series consist on aluminum mirrors that have been cut by the artist. The reflection on the mirror is intended to induce introspection and ground ourselves as human beings aiming to find not only meaning and purpose in our lives but also individuality and identity. The cut is a metaphor for imperfections, implying that they are crucial part of who we are.
Rotating Onyx Nuvolato (2019) made with stone slab (onyx nuvolato), motor and stainless steel mirror. Moreover, onyx is a stone associated with strength, willpower, protective vibrations and the activation of chakras; highlighting the necessity of acceptance.
Fantastically playful, insightful and colorful, Jeppe Hein’s illuminated pieces are able to resonate in a sensible manner that is not only rare to come across but unforgettable. You Are Everything carries a grandeur that encourages and rewards prolonged examination. The apparent simplicity in Hein’s oeuvre belies a long-lasting gestation period as it lingers in the mind of the viewer and conducts to an introspective spiritual experience.
