A conversation with Jakob Kolding about his solo exhibition ‘Everything’s Gone Green: Architectural Drawings’ at Galleri Nicolai Wallner.

Jakob Kolding’s practice centres on a deep interest in the politics of images, the construction of meaning and the complexities of visual representation. Working within the field of collage, Kolding’s processes of deconstruction and reconstruction, reorganisation and permutation, create works which explore the systemic cultural, social and political structures of our shared world, and in so doing simultaneously create a space in which to consider ways to move beyond said structures.

As a result, the work feels charged with a certain kind of excitement and intensity. Visually speaking, Kolding’s works are dense and full of surprises, as each found element brings in layers of references, histories and interpretations. Forming shifting relationships and establishing new contexts, backgrounds and inconspicuous items hold just as much intention as the elements placed at the forefront. Some elements are easily recognisable while others are more obscure, leaving space to find links and possible narratives as we interact with the imagery.

Within his practice, Kolding reiterates the power of visual language, while elegantly insisting that it is malleable and not set in stone. It is a living entity that we can—and should—engage with. He emphasises these themes through his choice of technique. Alongside classic cut-and-paste collages on paper, his practice encompasses collaged text works and posters as well as collage-based sculptures and installations. The result is an expansive body of work which intervenes with our spaces, inviting us to do the same.

In continuation with Kolding’s ongoing exploration of representations of power, choosing source material which is literally meant to fade into the background and exist in the margins creates new dynamics which feels open and unexpected, familiar and alien. This is also in part due to the nature of the material. From a distance, the original source material is recognisable, yet the closer you get the more the images dissolve into a sea of brightly coloured pixels.

The ever changing nature of the visuals and the intentional lack of a singular focal-point encourages us to stay within this duality, giving us a moment to think about the visual power of images and representation. The works allow a view from the margin on the authority of the architect and as a consequence on our surrounding spaces, cities and societies. They suggest simultaneous Utopian and Dystopian readings of the disappearance of buildings – of the grand monuments – and the resurgence of a dreamed of natural world.

Jakob Kolding (b. 1971, Denmark) has exhibited extensively throughout the world, with notable solo exhibitions at Stedelijk Museum Bureau (Amsterdam), University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor), Salzburger Kunstverein (Salzburg), Overgaden (Copenhagen), Centre d’Edition Contemporaine (Geneva), Hamburger Kunstverein (Hamburg), and the Cobra Museum for Modern Art (Amstelveen) alongside Corbusier. In 2017, he created the stage design and scenography for an original opera for the Bregenzer Festspiele in collaboration with Kunsthaus Bregenz (Bregenz). His work can be found in the public collections of Museum of Modern Art (New York), the National Gallery of Denmark (Copenhagen), Wien Museum (Vienna), Kunsthaus Bregenz (Bregenz) and the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) among many others.