Hyperborea (112)

Andersen’s is happy to announce the current exhibition Hyperborea by Martin Brandt Hansen — the artist’s second solo show with the gallery.

In ancient Greek mythology, Hyperborea was a mythical land far to the north - beyond the touch of the northern wind, Boreas.

Four large-scale female figures carved in Greenlandic marble meet the viewer as they enter the space.

With these four new sculptures, Martin Brandt Hansen elaborates on the myth of variations of Asiaq, Inuit deity of rain and western winds - symbolized as the four corners of the world.

In Inuit mythology, it is said that Asiaq lives in the sky. When the weather turns too harsh for humans, the shaman embarks on a spiritual journey to meet her - pleading for gentler skies and calmer winds. Her mouth curves downward, and her nose and eyes stretch sideways across her face, as if the wind and weather themselves are reflected in her.

The four sculptures of Asiaq are accompanied by a numerous amount of arctic stoneware - earthly and tangible creatures of clay that at appear as tupilak figures, but also reveal themselves as portraits of the mortal world.

Brandt Hansen’s works range from sculptural interpretations of traditional Inuit artifacts to representations of imported manufactured objects from Greenland, reflecting the classic iconography of Western mass culture and its influence. These objects, each carrying a larger historical, social, and cultural significance, come together to form a strong visual narrative.

Martin Brandt Hansen (b. 1990) was born in Greenland. He grew up in Nuussuaq and Nuuk and moved to Copenhagen in 2014. Brandt Hansen has a master’s degree from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he graduated in 2022. His graduation project received the esteemed Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen’s Foundation talent prize.  Brandt Hansen has exhibited at Arken Museum of Contemporary Art, V1 Gallery, Nuuk Art Museum and Nordatlantens Brygge and has made a public commission for the Danish restaurant NOMA. 
Brandt Hansen is currently working on a public commission for a Danish high school, Gefion Gymnasium.