This weekend marked the fifth month since the massacre at Charlie Hebdo and Copenhagen Comics paid homage to the five murdered cartoonists by exhibiting their portraits, drawn by five of their Danish colleagues.
To underline their being there with the rest of us, another exhibition was growing underneath them, this one by Annette Carlsen, who was walking among the guests
this year too translating onto paper what caught her eye. As always one had to be quick to
discover her in action such as here scanning the audience listening to Art Spiegelman:
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| Photo: Louise C. Larsen. |
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Annette Carlsen, Guest listening to Art Spiegelman, June 7, 2015.
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Annette Carlsen, Guest listening to Art Spiegelman, June 7, 2015.
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The art of Annette Carlsen lies in characterizing persons, who may be without any outward movement and still we do not focus on any specificity of their noses or lips. We sense their inward emotion, listening in and yet not quietly doing so. They each have a personal reason for being there, maybe an agenda even, since Art Spiegelman is someone we have all been examined in in high school/gymnasium around these parts and we have discussed him for so long that there are a lot of ingredients at play when seeing and hearing him in real time.
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| Annette Carlsen, Art Spiegelman, June 7, 2015. |
And there he is, very much present, at once relaxed and energetic and from whom each sentence contains a discussion in itself; such as how a cartoon can be racist and anti-racist at the very same time when drawn as a comment against racists and as such one part of a dialogue, only when seen from the outside it might seem racist. Which is a situation that is all too well known in cartooning today and sadly relevant in how
Charlie Hebdo was all too often seen.
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| Annette Carlsen, Art Spiegelman, June 7, 2015. |
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| Photo: Louise C. Larsen. |
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Annette Carlsen, Adam Holm in conversation
with Art Spiegelman,
June 7, 2015. |
- Annette drawing Art Spiegelman and the journalist interviewing him Adam Holm in a light, which can hardly be described other than divine. The two of them very much knew they were being drawn, while below are some of the other guests, busy in each their way and each in their own world and yet all very much in a togetherness, the sum of them making for a festival. With a particular favorite in the bewildered one, seeing too much to interest him and walking in all directions at one time. That index finger is a
Matisse.
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| Annette Carlsen, Guest at Cph Comics, June 7, 2015. |
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| Annette Carlsen, Guest at Cph Comics, June 7, 2015. |
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Annette Carlsen, Guest at Cph Comics,
June 6, 2015. |
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| Annette Carlsen, Guest at Cph Comics, June 6, 2015. |
And finally we have not least the very special privilege of having a cartoonist on the line too,
Ivar Gjørup, as always caught in the act of speaking and as always radiating a light from within. May he never change:
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| Annette Carlsen, Ivar Gjørup, June 6, 2015. |
The cartoons shown are courtesy of Annette Carlsen and must not be reproduced without her permission.
