Claus Carstensen & Superflex

CLAUS CARSTENSEN & SUPERFLEX

AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE

Flex Pissing/Björk Is a Prat [a.k.a. Bringing It All Back Home] I stages artistic strategies that have characterised Danish art in the 1980s and '90s respectively. The picture eventually became one of the most talked about works of recent years.

Flex Pissing/Björk Is a Prat [a.k.a. Bringing It All Back Home] I, 1997

Flex Pissing/Björk is a Prat [a.k.a. Bringing It All Back Home] I, 1997

Description
The enormous photograph depicts four people in a desert-like landscape with low, sparse scrub and a mountainous background. The top part of the picture is dominated by a clear azure sky. One of the figures, a man with an almost clean-shaven head  and sunglasses, has his back to us in a position indicating that he is urinating. 

The other three are sporting street wear and animal masks: a lion, a duck and a gorilla. The lion and the duck are throwing gang signs, the index and middle fingers outstretched, the others bent.

About the work
The work with the outlandish title Flex Pissing/Björk Is a Prat [a.k.a. Bringing It All Back Home] I informs (us) of the depicted artists and their art in several ways. The photograph portrays Claus Carstensen and the group Superflex but a detailed knowledge of Danish art is necessary to be able to make that identification.

Carstensen, his back turned, is urinating; Superflex are wearing animal masks, making it impossible to identify the individual members. Their masks and T-shirts allude to respectively a CD and their biogas project in Africa (ARKEN's Collection). The photograph was taken during a field trip to the Joshua Tree national park in California while Superflex were students at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Carstensen a professor.
Read more

Claus Carstensen's and Sperflex' art in general
Claus Carstensen focuses primarily on an expressive painting in various manifestations. The ambiguous paintings challenge familiar expectations to the classical medium. He relates consciously and reflectively to the history, language and idiom that he joins with his painting.
Read more

Literature
"Claus Carstensen. Crossover", ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst, København, 1997