Carsten Fun Jensen

Artist Statement – Carsten Fun Jensen

Many of Carsten’s sculptures are subtle.

This is the series of works in which he comments on the state of the world in his own understated way.

The subjects are not very funny. They are some of the most pressing problems or challenges that the world around Carsten has faced during the many years he has worked with sculpture:

apartheid in South Africa, the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 and the domino effect of consequences it had, the costs to animals of industrial agricultural production, climate change and recycling as a response – and what does it really mean to have a clear conscience? To be a decent human being? In other words, the eternal debate in the media of all kinds, where some people sometimes find themselves thinking: Stop the world. I want to get off.

Not Carsten. Carsten lives his peaceful life with his family and his work with sculpture and his community, not least with the fellow artists with whom he shares a studio at Verket. Nevertheless, he cannot help but relate to the world around us. The immediate demands. And the stance that the problems of the planet require of him.

Det sidste afspejles i en del af hans skulpturer. Ikke bombastisk og proklamatorisk, for det ligger ikke til Carstens temperament eller til hans humoristiske sans. Men netop med en stille underfundighed hvor han i sine skulpturer samstiller former, så de stiller spørgsmål ved opfattelsen af verden. Som for eksempel Carstens kommentar til burhøns: Den gengiver fragmenter af fjerkræ, der stikker hovedet ud af en alt for lille kasse, mens guldæggene samles for neden og formulerer spørgsmålet om, hvorvidt vi kan spise dem med god samvittighed.

De samfundskommenterende skulpturer er imidlertid blot en del af Carstens virke.

En anden side er hans nonfigurative skulpturer. De er bløde og organiske, og man fornemmer tydeligt naturinspirationen. Man fornemmer også inspirationen fra en lang skulpturtradition.

Carsten traf jeg ved et tilfælde, og vi begyndte at tale sammen over et stykke smørrebrød, som blev til flere. Fordelt over adskillige gange hvor vi selvfølgelig talte om kunst og den omstændighed, at alle kunstnere naturligvis står i gæld til hinanden. Det afgørende er, om man som kunstner vedstår den tradition, man er rundet af. Det gør Carsten. Carsten snyder ikke på vægten.

Carsten is a traveler who has often visited other cultures to learn to see the world in different ways. But his inspiration is mainly drawn from European art history. No sculptor today, no sculptor who works with soft, amorphous forms, can avoid being influenced by some of the great figures of the 20th century, such as Jean Arp and Henry Moore, who both went on to found schools of thought. This is also true for Carsten, who himself cites a great Danish sculptor, Erik Thommesen, as a clear role model. Erik Thommesen (1916-2008) belonged to a different era. Many of his sculptures were long in the making and the result of thorough consideration of form and craftsmanship.

Carsten stands on the shoulders of the aforementioned figures, and in the case of some of his sculptures, one could also mention Reinhoud d’Haese, who is best known for his mythical creatures. In his work, which is driven by a joy of form and built on a commitment to the world, Carsten draws on his knowledge of art history, learning from the many sculptures he has seen, and combines this with the particular subtlety that characterizes his approach to visual art.

CV

2024

2023