Helle Mardahl looking relaxed just a few days before her first NYC show opens up

 It's not often that you meet someone who says she gave up her successful career to become an artist because she was sick of working so hard for so little money. But that's how Helle Mardahl came to be an artist. In fact, she told me, "I believe in destiny and destiny told me to calm down a bit."

 I met Mardahl recently at LaViolaBank Gallery, where she was preparing for her upcoming show, The Largest Possible Audience. She was white-washing a canvas in preparation for a projection, which seemed more like a Zen exercise than work. We discussed her art and her previous career in fashion and I noticed that she certainly had the energy, passion and vigor of someone in fashion, but at the same time I also noticed an air of relaxation and even contentment about her. The satisfaction she seems to have found in developing the complex and intricate works she was putting up might have surprised her a few years ago, but her drive and determination didn't mean she had the manic furvor I've seen in so many fashion designers.

 Despite the complexity of her works, she explained her ideas and inspiration in very simple terms. People's obsession with the royal family, which inspired her last show, and people's desire for attention which inspired this show, are so simple that you don't have to be a 'tellectual to understand what she's talking about.

The Orgy   2009

Mardahl white-washes a canvas

 Before you get the idea that Helle is some kind of snob by criticizing people who want to be in the spotlight, let me tell you about one of the first pieces she showed me: a highly stylized self-portrait, in which she explained how she likes attention. She even showed me how I might make a nice subject for her work, which focused on people getting attention by doing something different. Here I was, "a long haired man with a leather outfit, but [you're] actually wearing a computer bag... and [you write] for a female magazine." Er, right, but flattery will only get you so far; you still have to explain why all this attention on attention: "It's so easy to get attention -- media attention -- if you just do something different... and that could be rob a bank... but it's also beautiful at the same time because it makes people fight for something."

 While some of her works seem more concerned with style and form, as you might expect from someone with a fashion background, others are politically charged and fused with anger. Although the anger in some of the works contrasts with what I saw of Helle's personality, she is clearly deeply troubled by unfairness in her native Denmark. Even though her current work reflects people who tend to the unusual vying for attention, she insists that it's reflective of the inane: "it's just how it is." As for her inspiration? "That's how I am."

Helle's Work will be on display at LaViolaBank Gallery from April 29 through May 30. The opening will be Wednesday Night from 6 to 9. Don't miss the Wednesday night after-party at Broadway East, thrown by our favorite party girls Six Six Sick! OMG, full string quartet!

Helle Mardahl

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