Artist's Statement

        Often I have been asked what the meaning of my paintings actually is - as if
       there should be some sort of "aha-experience" hidden in the motif, bringing the
        spectator nearer the right level of abstraction. Meanwhile I have had to reply
        that no such hidden agenda exist. It can be difficult to understand, as we are
       used to the presence of a point. A kind of art-theoretical universal explanation.
           By preference one which is easily understood by the majority. If we
       immediately cannot "understand" a given motif, we get offended and forget that
       it is our own picture experience, that is the point. We ourselves stand with the
                key and have no necessary for art-theoretical excesses.

               Regarding my paintings, the idea - contrary to what some
        might think - is not hidden. This is not to say that the themes aren't enigmatic,
        it's just that they can't be interpreted. They are more related to the irrational
        riddle of the Sphinx than the well-ordered symbolist allegories. The paintings
        cannot be translated, or with other words, they represents nothing more than
                         what can be seen in the motif.

         The elements of the motif are not symbols which conceals some underlying
          abstraction, just as a naturalistic painting or a photo) of a bicycle is not
          perceived as a symbol of a bicycle, but on the other hand, as an illusion
                                 of a bicycle.

        The point of the paintings origin is the pictorial art genre known as "fantastic
         realism". A genre which traditionally is occupied with the "subconscious",
          mythological, esoteric etc. In that sense fantastic art is a forum for man's
       spiritual endeavors and a sanctuary for dark and profound urges. It is the key to
       the comprehension of that conscious which is not formalized, psychologised and
         rationalized. A free rein of the imagination exposing human metamythology
          based on its own premises,  which is creative spirit and not on adapted
        psychological models and art-theory, which only serves its own justification.

       Seldom has the art of the fantastic been setting the fashion in the context of art
       history. It is the nature of fantastic art to deprive its age and often exist, as the
          name of the attentive exhibition suggest, "beyond here and now". This
       marginalized existence seems to be its destiny, but in all ages it has obstinately
         been sticking its head up between the inane ness of the fashionable and the
            avant-garde. Fabulating and astonishing - frightful and fascinating.

        J�rgen Mahler Elbang text from the catalogue to the exhibition "Fantastica -
         Beyond Here and Now", The Northwest Art Association October 1998,
                               Copenhagen).

                  Jorgen Mahler Elbang - Tel: +45 35 82 87 50
                      e-mail: [email protected]
             Lundtoftegade 82, 3. tv, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark