Birgitte Due Madsen
SOLID VOIDS – a continued exercise of forms and beauty

Photo: Lotta Agaton
Solid Voids was created by Birgitte Due Madsen as a series of objects made by gypsum to be part of the exhibition Hotel Charlottenborg at Kunsthal Charlottenborg curated by the accomplished team behind Ark Journal during 3 Days of Design in Copenhagen. The result of this serie is an intersection between art and design, a deep reflection of light and shadow with a certain level of abstraction – it invites your senses, through different geometrical forms and concave/convex shapes.

Photo: Rikke Westesen
Birgitte Due Madsen’s work are characterized by a subtle, poetic color scheme, tactile textures and with a strict geometry. Her idea for Solid Voids was to create sculptural forms that are related and respond to each other. The geometrical forms, such as concave and convex and spheres and squared, becomes an ongoing study of positive, negative and hollow spaces. It’s rare to see plaster or gypsum used as an exhibition material because it is considered worthy only as a sketching medium before a work is made in marble or other solid materials. But in the ceramic artist’s deft hands it is a fluid expressive medium, moulded, shaped and cast, then polished to a velvety surface that begs to be touched.
Birgitte Due Madsen wants her work to stimulate the interaction between the observer and the object.
Gypsum surprises and attracts with its soft surface and deep reflections of light and shadow.
It’s an almost sensual play with the laws of attraction.
If you touch the object you get a more sensible and sophisticated understanding of the craftsmanship behind as well as the beauty of the surface.

Photo: Birgitte Due Madsen

Photo: Birgitte Due Madsen

Photo: Birgitte Due Madsen
Birgitte works on a piece for a very long time, always refining the material. She trusts her instincts and values. Everything has a history and is inscribed in historic contexts and classic disciplines that seems to offer so much more inspiration, matter and content than a fleeting trend. If one goes in to the basic principles of geometry the possibilities of form are endless.

Photo: Birgitte Due Madsen

Photo: Henriette Schou
