The Malene Heerup Interview

CURRENT & TIMELESS INTRODUCING THE WORLD OF MALENE HEERUP

By Line Givskov / Creative Director of BWatt Magazine Design by Thomas Lyngdam-Lange

GIRL WITH THE GREY EYES, GEISHA (2011) Oil on canvas, 160 x 160 cm

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF MALENE HEERUP. I AM PROUD TO BE THE ONE TO INTRODUCE YOU. IT IS MAGICAL HERE, AND THIS PLACE BREATHS LIFE. I WAS ENCHANTED FROM THE VERY FIRST MOMENT I MET WITH A PAINTING OF HERS. IT WAS HANGING AT A FRIENDS PLACE. IT WAS BIG AND COLORFUL YET HANGING THERE IN BALANCED MANNER, SPEAKING SOFTLY AND DEEPLY TO ME, IT INSPIRED ME. THE PAINTING LINGERED WITH ME LONG AFTER, AND LEFT ME CURIOUS FOR MORE. A COUPLE OF MONTHS LATER I ALSO GOT TO MEET MALENE HERSELF. NO NEED TO SAY I HAD EXACTLY THE SAME EXPERIENCE WITH HER; A WOMAN FULL OF LIFE, DIVERSITY, INSPIRATION AND WITHOUT A DOUBT A TRULY TALENTED ARTIST OF OUR TIME. MALENE´S WORK TAKES YOU BACK INTO THE VERY CORE OF LIFE, THE PLACE OF THE SOULFUL, THE COLORFUL, THE MUSICAL, THE SPIRITUAL. IT IS A SPARKLE, A MOMENT, A PIECE OF HISTORY OF LIFE IN ALL ITS FACETS. IT IS HONEST AND IT IS OPEN AND IT IS TRULY BEAUTIFUL AND POWERFUL. HER PAINTINGS HOLD A DEEP WISDOM, WHILE KEEPING YOU AT A WONDER, IT IS LIGHT AND COLORFUL AND SIMPLY BREATHS LIFE. IN MALENE I MEET THE SAME, THIS IS WHY IT HAS BEEN SUCH AN HONOR, TO DIVE INTO HER ARTISTIC MIND AND SHARE THIS INTERVIEW WITH YOU. MALENE IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE FULL OF WONDER. IT MAKES SENSE TO ME HOW SHE HAS NATURALLY CREATED AND MOVED WITHIN THE MANY GENRES OF ART; DESIGN, FASHION, MUSIC, DANCING AND ACTING, HER PAINTINGS ARE FILLED WITH ALL OF THAT AND MORE. EVEN AS SHE PAINTS, INSPIRED BY WHAT HER CURIOUS EYE ENCOUNTER, IT IS JUST AS MUCH THE WISDOM OF THE PAST AND THE DREAMS OF THE FUTURE THAT END UP LAYING DEEPLY WITHIN A MALENE HEERUP PAINTING. TO BE BOTH CURRENT AND TIMELESS IS TO ME A GREAT MASTERY. THIS IS PROOF THAT HER ART WILL LIVE FAR BEYOND OUR TIME, AND LEAVES ME CERTAIN THAT MY OWN EXPLORATION OF HER WORK IS TRULY NEVER-ENDING. LOOK FORWARD TO DIVE IN, INTRODUCING, MALENE HEERUP.

GRASS IN KENYA, AND ANGELS (2014) Oil on canvas, 130 x 260 cm

CLEOPATRA IN LOVE (2014) Oil on canvas, 160 x 160 cm

20 YEARS INTO YOUR CAREER AS AN ARTIST, TELL US WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW, AND WHAT YOU ARE WORKING ON? Wow, that sounds wild, yes 20 years ago I graduated form Parsons School of Design in NY. Right now I feel that I am in a very intense creative process where I am finding new ways and places also in myself, I am discovering things about light in a new way. I feel like an investigator some times, the series I am working on right now is inspired by two fantastic trips I did to Kenya in the last years.

The trip for me started on the airplane with the two people I sat between on the airplane, they told me about Kenya. I was so ready to receive information on all levels. Flying over North Africa was clear, you could see mountains, floods, lakes, they had the most beautiful colors. Everything started to move inside. I was going to see someone I hadn´t see for 7 years. My imagination of this continent, Egypt, Cleopatra, the Pyramids, the wisdom, the forgotten roots of the human race, ran wild.

I have always been very interested in history and art history, the original expression of storytelling trough drawing and symbols, back to the first African signs from humans, why they communicated, and what they communicated. All the way up through the history of the African continent, hieroglyphs, architecture, believes, design, jewelries, the way they lived in the different cultures, the rhythm, music, rituals, colors. I believe we are much more a part of this than we think, it is in us.

”

I have a wild imagination, and I remember visuals like an elephant. Even my dreams are like movies.

So the pieces, paintings, I work on right now are about these journeys inside and out. I paint myself into the feeling of history and my own experience, so I can be there. It felt very natural in so many ways, mind blowing. We were traveling and saw the passing of the animal herds crossing over to Tanzania one of the 7 wonders. The rhythm of the seasons, we saw all the animals, it was a dream coming true, the Indian Ocean, all the colors, the taste, the sweetness of the people, and its fruits. And my friend who is born in Kenya, lived in US for 27 years, love him.

YOUR WORK IS AMONGST MANY THINGS, BOLD, LIVELY AND COLORFUL, TELL US ABOUT WHAT INSPIRE YOU AS AN ARTIST? Yes, I have a wild imagination, and I remember visuals like an elephant, even my dreams are like movies, and often I remember them in details. Sometimes visuals appear from out of space or from places I have been, or dreams I had. In that sense I travel a lot… I start to work with it.

It can be almost mysterious to myself sometimes, but I feel a great satisfaction in this process. Everything starts with a feeling.

DO YOU FIND A CERTAIN PURPOSE IN YOUR WORK? IS THERE A MESSAGE YOU WANT TO SHARE? A STORY TO TELL? Yes, every time I create something I reach out and share, for me it really is about giving something, communicating. I hope that people get some of the vibes I try to send out to the world like music. I feel like a musician, colors and shapes are the tones, the motives like lyrics, stories.

The pieces have a certain feeling and message, vibration.

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE PROCESS OF CREATING A PAINTING, HOW DOES IT BEGIN AND HOW DOES IT COME TO ITS END? It is almost a religious, mysterious process. Like I said it starts with a feeling and undefined fascination, a need to express, subconsciously... in the process I let go... this is so important, the ego must go. Sometimes I do a lot of sketches and choose to make big paintings of some of them or parts of them.

The sketches can give me visions of things to create, other times I just improvise and the motive comes to me. I work quite graphically and with a lot of different textures.

I always touch things to really feel them, all senses are used when I look for textures.

Painting is for me a 3-dimensional illusion, a sculpture, a monument coming out of the canvas, that´s why I am interested in form, design, fashion, architecture etc.

Sometimes I work on pieces for years because they don’t want to be done...weird process. When they are almost done, I can feel it, they cannot be changed anywhere. One day they have that ’something’ I am looking for, they shine back, and they feel wholesome to me.

YOUR ART HAS, WHAT SEEMS LIKE, NATURALLY MANIFESTED INTO INTERIOR DESIGN (FURNITURE, PILLOWS, CARPETS ETC), TELL US ABOUT THIS OTHER PART OF YOUR CREATIVE WORK? Growing up I spent a lot of time with my grandmother the artist Mille Heerup, she had met my grandfather at the Danish Art Academy, she was one of the only woman there at the time, it was and still is a mans world in a lot of ways. She wanted to become an artist, she became a mother and couldn’t live with the same freedom as my grandfather at the time. She was so cool, and such an amazing artist and woman.

She taught for 25 years, at the Danish Design School, and was doing her own art on the side viewing goblins, drawing, creating handcrafts, and the finest watercolors. She stopped painting.

The funny part about her was that she had this amazing eye for art and my grandfather and many of their world known artist friends were all so nervous, almost fearfull when she commented on their work very precisely, and they would talk a lot about her judgement. She was feared, and respected.

She was my teacher from I was very little, we worked together and I did all these ”female art things” with her, in her universe, she taught me to see and draw fundamentally, she was also a great craft designer.

For me art/craft could be the same thing, she taught me another way to express and use your crafts and talent.

YOU STUDIED AND LIVED A GREAT DEAL OF TIME IN NEW YORK, TELL US ABOUT THIS TIME IN YOUR LIFE? At Parsons I also studied Graphic design and illustration in a quite abstract way. I love to work with objects that have several functions. I always liked to touch art growing up, I like to work with objects where the sensuality of touch is involved.

Art should be lived with and in. Verner Panton, Frank Gerry, Utzon, Gaudi etc. are artists. Rules should be broken, freedom of expression and craft.

TOWARDS SUNSET, MAN ON HORSE (2014) Oil on canvas, 160 x 160 cm

WHAT DID LIVING IN NEW YORK GIVE YOU PERSONALLY? AND WHAT DID IT GIVE YOU AS AN ARTIST? Big question, first of all I never liked boxes, I was born a rebel, I wanted to go my own way. Not do things like anybody around me. I knew as a child I had to live in NY, I felt different. Something had to bloom that needed to come out. NY seemed to be the right place.

My stepfather lived in NY for a long time before meeting my mother he always told about NY, when ”Hair” directed by Milos Forman came out I was so ready. In the movie theatre I decided to move there some day.

There was a freedom and happiness I was looking for, I was a little flower power kid.

First time I was there I was 16, I was overwhelmed by the size, but I saw people like myself. I was right.

At 19 I lived there for 7 month, to young and green, but I performed in a show with a Japanese director, dancer, performer with 20 other dancers and performers ”5 car Pile Up”. At the time I was dancing a lot and wanted to become a performer actress and singer. I was hooked on NY and the people I met.

After being in the theatre group called “Får 302” for 3-4 years in Copenhagen, and living in Paris for a while I returned to NY and applied for Parsons. Started there, and was still performing especially singing.

After graduation I was working in different bands, wrote my own songs/lyrics and was freelancing in graphic design and illustration.

Parsons brought out my visual expression, I felt like a fish in water. I was surprised how much I loved it. I needed the peace. I was in no ones ”shadow” (family wise), people saw me and my self confidence grew quickly, It was like coming out of the closet, art wise.

At Parsons, everybody, in the different majors had to draw a lot, and work with the source - design understood in a more abstract way, so great and so modern I think. Lots of homework, though it didn’t really feel like work. I tested my passions in NY. NY is no joke to live in, but I got great friends, and met positivity and power, even though I missed my family and even Denmark. I could be myself in a way I never could back home. I felt empowered by the pulse and multicultural energy of the city, it brought out this survival instinct, no space for doubt.

And God knows it´s a SEXY PLACE, it made me feel sensual and sexy. I was out at night, dancing, eating,

”

Every time I c I reach out and really is about gi communicating.

discussing, people are not afraid to stand out and shin Mandela said: ”As we let our light shine, we unconscio as we are liberated from our fears, our presence autom In Denmark I could feel that I had/have to turn down serious etc. I was always a bit of a clown to cover up

NY is of course often romanticized even by me, it real but little miracles happened all the time for me, I am n

Personally it gave me the courage to believe in myself as an artist, I felt encouraged, I found what I couldn’t live without; visual art. It felt like a lifetime.

create something share, for me it iving something,

ne, dress up, perform and be unique. Like Nelson ously give other people permission to do the same, matically liberates others”. This was/is NY for me! myself, you know, too happy, too temperamental, too a bit.

lly is no joke, dangerous, dirty, and damn expensive, not done with that place, never will be.

I found love several times, and the father to my son. I see the world from the NY angle. I learned that we can come from all cultures and backgrounds and still feel more connected to each other than with somebody from our own culture. The mind and souls connect us more, and the dreams we share. The people makes a place like NY, they find soul friends there and people with the same passion. There is an openness and curiosity to do so, people are not set into boxes, that to me can be safe, but not always good for art at all.

The whole cultural scene is amazing and I used it to the bone, museums, galleries, music, dance, poetry, concerts, everything, the best of it all. I was eye opening. It gave me this feeling if they can do it, so can I. I wanted to become really good at my craft, and I learned the discipline to work very hard.

Sometimes I was totally exhausted by NY, the whole surviving part, burned out, then I went home to Denmark, recreated, and went back with good health lots of sleep an love in my back. 8 years like this in my life. Then I was hit by a car on 5th Avenue, and had to leave, it was bad. Damn that was hard.

But the good outcome was my son Milan, amongst many things, and time and devotion to my artwork.

That made sense.

You can’t fake it in NY, you have to be it, or you go nowhere.

YOU HAVE HAD A LIFE LONG CAREER AS A PAINTER, FROM WHERE COMES THE COURAGE TO DEDICATE YOURSELF TO THIS CRAFT, WHAT MAKES YOU WAKE UP AND PAINT EVERY DAY? Passion, I love what I do. The process, the lifestyle, the freedom - no boss, it makes sense to me. Courage is a weird thing, but you need it if you express yourself, it is simply necessary, a need. Something comes before courage, vision, something you want, a sort of mission in life that makes you have the courage.

Being creative is one big journey.

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Working with applied arts give me a chance to have my art become characters in unique stories in people’s everyday life. The art becomes animated much differently to a painting or a sculpture. They come alive through use. It lives!

COLLABORATION WITH SAGA FUR COPENHAGEN (2013) Fur and leather

JAZZ (2014) Oil on canvas, 160 x 130 cm

YOU HAVE BEEN RAISED IN A FAMILY OF ARTISTS, YOUR GRANDFATHER (HENRY HEERUP) AND FATHER (OLE HEERUP) WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON FOR YOU THAT YOU HAVE LEARNED AND INHERITED FROM THEM? Life growing up was a lesson, when you see people work and live, it becomes the normal thing, I guess.

I thought they were some kind of entertainers, musicians, poets, painters, sculptures, craftsmen/woman, clowns, very humoristic, loud, difficult at times, even my mother who was an academic became a writer, poet, speaker and traveller. Something to live up to, intense and beautiful.

They allowed me to be, and do anything as long as I was happy.

WHAT DO YOU FEEL HAS BEEN THE HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR CAREER SO FAR? A highlight is when another artist/colleague I admire give me compliments. That means a lot. Also compliments from my family. The letter that “The World artists for Tibet” sent me when they invited me to join them, was a highlight. I was so proud. Doing the dialogue exhibition with my grandfather Henry Heerup, I was feeling very humble. The evening of the opening was surreal, 300 people came. People spoke I spoke Palle Mikkelborg played. It was sweet. My grandfather was watching us, the chief. The interest from Toshio Shimizu´s art office in Tokyo, I admire the way they work with spaces, and the level of work, I couldn’t believe it.

AND WHAT IS YOUR DREAMS/GOALS FOR THE FUTURE AS AN ARTIST? To keep working and burning, having the passion and believe that what I do makes a difference, that I will reach more and more people in the world. I love to travel. Have big art installations where people come, out there in the World. To stimulate positivity and hope for a softer and better world that will awake imagination. I am a romantic. The world can become to grey and dull, there are so many more levels that are forgotten.

WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE THAT HAS EVER BEEN GIVEN TO YOU? My father gave me a little book by Piet Hein once, a Danish multi artist/designer. It said on the cover: ”Lev mens du gør det, elsk mens tdu tør det” - ”Live while you do it, love while you still dare to” I can always see this little book for my inner eye, it gives me, when in doubt, the courage to have a heart of a lion.

PHOTO CREDITS: Gunnar Larsen (portrait in black & white), Kim Ahm (Malene working in the studio), Anita Josephine Wales (portrait in colour), Jesper Blæsild (paintings).