Sol Kj�k
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Braid Performance. Nordic Museum of Drawing
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Centrifugal disintegration as well as centripetal integration is evident in Kj�k�s intertwined figures, with disintegration usually signaled by a sort of ingrained melancholy, not to say morbid introspection or introversion. It is also conveyed more insidiously by the curiously impersonal, even ritualistic character of their �romantic� intimacy. Integration is conveyed by their ecstatic�but also anxious�mingling and merging in the cocoon-like globes.
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Strings Attached, Oil + Pierre Noire/canvas 2008
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Kj�k repeatedly touches on the theme of relational closeness, but it cannot be taken for granted. The point is made exquisitely clear in one poignant drawing, where we see an isolated male figure, squatting on a balloon of hallucinatory figures, almost touching, with one extended finger, the finger of a hand reaching out of the balloon of inchoate figures above him.
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Triskelion, 2008. Wall Drawing and Tattoo
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Unfurling, 2008. Nordic Museum of Drawing
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Spiraling Out, 2008. 10' x 10', Wall Drawing
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They relate, but don�t connect: the fingers are in the same space, but the figures remain in separate spaces, and as such irreconcilable with each other: the bridge of fingers between them is broken, suggesting the unfathomable distance between them.
In another drawing several figures push�force�other figures into a communal mass, but it is not clear that they will hold together, for the massive ball of figures seems to unravel even as it is being formed. The labyrinthine balls of anonymous figures are densely packed, but they seem on the verge of falling apart and collapsing into a meaningless heap of bodies. In another drawing isolated female figures hang on for dear life, precariously suspended from globular balloons of figures by somewhat thin ropes. Perhaps they want to join the group inside the balloon, but they�re outside it��hangers on� or outcasts in the emptiness.
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All of Kj�k�s figures are individualized, however much they have a family resemblance, suggesting that the conflict�the inner drama�of the ostensibly erotic works has to do with the tension between the individual and the group. Clearly, orgiastic sex is not the glue that holds the world together for Kj�k, however often it holds individuals together�temporarily.
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Stitched with Its Color, 2008. Oil+Pierre Noire/ca
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They may circle together, forming a chain of common emotional being, as they do in one work, but the figures that forms the links in the chain seem too self-absorbed�lost in their own body egos--to empathically bond with one another. It is this contradiction that gives Kj�k�s bodies an ironic edge that trumps their nakedness: they may seem shameless, but their relational predicament suggests they are not exactly in paradise.
Donald B. Kuspit
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