Frederik Exner

Gnomon is the title of Frederik Exner’s first institutional solo exhibition in Denmark. As we enter the new year, the Danish artist zooms in on something not immediately comprehensible or explicable. The exhibition revolves around a premonition, a sense of an impending, imminent upheaval in an already tense world. At Tranen, viewers are invited to scrutinise some creatures that are clearly also scrutinising something that viewers cannot discern what is.

In the centre of the exhibition space at Tranen, nine strange animals of an unknown species line up and crouch, each on its own box. All seem to direct their attention to something about to occur. Before them hangs one box more, housing a structure of bones centred around yet another box, which contains nothing, however. The herd is alert and on the scent of something, but a small space in front of them is empty, like a grave or a fold or a chest. They seem to detect a change but still await its effects.

Frederik Exner’s blend of sculpture and relief constitutes a total installation, where all elements play together as an ensemble. The scenario may call to mind a museum staging of an archeological excavation, such as that of a prehistoric monument or a temple. However, the figures seem to have turned up rather than been dug out of the ground. Situated on foam-clad aluminum boxes turned inside out, they appear like a jack-in-the-box. But the ensemble is oddly composed and may also bring to mind a complicated mechanism – like a colossal clockwork whose workings are difficult to fathom.

The exhibition’s title Gnomon denotes the pointer of a sundial, the shadow of which indicates the time of day. The pointer may also be used as a compass to determine location and calculate the circumference of the earth. In Greek, the word gnomon means “one who examines or knows.” But the word also resembles the similar-sounding word “gnome.” “Gnome” was introduced by the physicist and Renaissance man Paracelsus as a term for “elementary being” in the sense of “earth dweller.” Exner himself sees his strange creatures as wise “pointers” on planet Earth. They suggest what humans cannot sense and therefore cannot interpret. They also point to the limits of knowledge of modern ape-people, who have dubbed themselves “homo sapiens”, that is to say, “knowledgeable humans” and, episodically, even “homo sapiens sapiens.”

In the animal kingdom exist a number of species that are said to be able to “foretell” events, not least natural catastrophes such as volcanic eruptions and storms. When the tsunami hit Indonesia in 2004, many of those who survived had simply followed cows, goats, cats, birds and other animals as these fled inland. The so-called “early warning system” of these animals has, throughout history, often proved itself superior to human preparedness. At present, we may well be able to see that we are approaching a number of so-called tipping points for life on earth, but we are unable to foresee the consequences for our surroundings and living conditions. Gnomon is pregnant with this feeling that we must orientate ourselves in the world in new ways.

An animal species that Frederik Exner has studied closely, as a cultural and biological phenomenon, over the last few years, is the frog. Breathing and absorbing fluids directly through its fine skin, it is in constant metabolism with its environment. As the artist expresses it: “When the frog moves through the world, the world moves through it.” Generally, frogs appear and begin to croak before, during and after rain. They have therefore been an integral part of various rain- and fertility rituals in agricultural societies in Asia, Europe, Africa and South and North America. Today, biologists consider the frog an indicator species of the state of ecosystems. Because they are so closely connected to their surroundings, they are also particularly sensitive and vulnerable. Frog species are, at present, becoming extinct thousands of times faster than before. They are therefore also frequently named as an indicator of the accelerating loss of biodiversity.

In various places throughout history, human beings have mirrored themselves in frogs, for instance in fairy tales about people who transform into frogs and vice versa. We do this today as well, as frogs manifest how we have left our mark on the world. But with Exner, the crouching creatures are not just frog-like. We cannot define their species or nature. These figures are also images of another way of inhabiting, and not least sensing, the world.

On the snouts of Exner’s nine creatures sit circular metallic discs, like an echo of Tranen’s nine skylights. They may resemble sensors or receptors of some sort. But here Exner has also references renderings of haloes in various religious pictorial traditions. In medieval Christianity, these are rendered as discs, which at times seem awkwardly to block the view of the holy figures. Clearly, Exner’s creatures also belong to another world. They possess a different sensory apparatus, which can give access to certain spaces while obstructing access to others.

With Gnomon, Exner delves into how earthly creatures orient themselves in the world. But the exhibition does not indicate a new direction. While at first glance his strange creations seem absorbed in what is happening just in front of their snouts, on closer inspection, they appear to have more eyes than you may think.

Toke Lykkeberg
Director, Tranen

Frederik Exner, educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, lives and works in Paris. He took part in Tranen’s exhibition ECO-FAN in 2024.

The exhibition is supported by:
The Danish Arts Foundation, Grosserer L. F. Foghts Fond, Beckett Fonden, William Demant Fonden, Ragnvald og Ida Blix' Fond, Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond, Den Hielmstierne-Rosencroneske Stiftelse