NGV Triennial

Cecilie Bendixen
Cloud formations

LEVEL 2, GALLERY 16

DENMARK, BORN 1975
LIVES AND WORKS IN ASKOV, SOUTH JUTLAND

PROJECT
Displayed as part of a range of projects relating to ideas of illumination and set among the NGV’s 19th and 20th century international collection, Cecilie Bendixen’s work will feature a skyscape of four large illuminated voluminous textile clouds. Cloud formations 2020 is both an investigation and an expression of the fluid, fleeting beauty found in the roiling confluence of heat, light, moisture, particles and airflow that come together momentarily to make a cloud.

Bendixen’s painstaking creative process involves a team of makers hand-forming each textile with needle and thread over several months. The material qualities of each piece – texture, stiffness and translucency – are deftly worked, folded and stitched to create forms that invite us to consider how we perceive transience and the space between the material and the immaterial, so perfectly reflected in a cloud. Here the textile changes as the viewer moves about the work and the forces of gravity gradually tug and pull at the form. Cloud formations draws our attention to the beauty and joy that can be found in these passing moments, encouraging us to look more closely and listen more intensely to the countless wonders occurring in the world all around us, all the time.

ABOUT
Cecilie Bendixen’s practice blends architecture, craft, art, and science to explore and experiment with natural phenomena. Often made from textile and constructed by hand, Bendixen’s work takes the form of spatial installations that capture and express intangible dynamics, such as space, sound, light and wind. The interplay between materials, process, form and environment guides her poetic approach to design and making.

Bendixen has exhibited widely including presentations at the World Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art, Madrid; Crafted Matter, Korea; Design Miami Basel; and Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition, Copenhagen. She was nominated for the Nordic Textile Awards in 2017 and that same year received the Bindesboell Medal. Bendixen’s works are also held in private and public collections, including the Danish Art Foundation and the Galila Barzilaï-Hollander Collection, Brussels.

The NGV warmly thanks Triennial Lead Supporter Neilson Foundation for their support.