Searching for Nigel
Film, installation





Searching for Nigel is an exhibition about love and distance, humans and animals, lost carrier pigeons and messages left on read. It’s a story about how a boy fell in love with a bird and how a bird fell in love with a statue.

The exhibition consists of a group of sculptures, architectonic interventions and a film. The orangerie will be inhabited by gannets with necklaces and drawings on seemingly misted windows. In the ballroom you will be able to watch the central piece of the show: a film mixing documentary and fictional material in a hybrid between a rom-com and a missing people documentary.

The film is based on the story of a group of scientists who tried to start a colony of gannets on Mana Island by luring them in with gannet sculptures in concrete. Only one real gannet arrived at the island, Nigel, who ended up falling in love with one of the concrete sculptures.

A solo show is never a solo show, because no one creates alone. Therefore there's an exhibition within the exhibition. Gannets love giving each other gifts. This photo of a gannet giving a necklace to their partner inspired a similar gesture in the show. I invited a group of friends to make small pieces in the shape of jewellery for the concrete gannets in the show. The artists are: Rebekka Hilmer Heltoft, Therese Bülow, Frederik Albrecht, Anna Walther, Karin Hald and Marie Vedel.

For the opening experience designer M Beydin created a vegan edible sculpture inspired by eggs.

Watch excerpt

Marseille, MANIFESTA, group show curated by The Winter Office, november 2020.

Villa Kultur, Copenhagen, “Searching for Nigel”, September 2021. Supported by Snabslanten, Statens Kunstfond and Det Obelske Familiefond.