In Porsager’s works, things are rarely inert but instead charged with energy. Her interest is drawn to the transition between the highly energized and the dormant, excitation and exhaustion and the possible space in between the two opposite poles. The same theme also characterizes these two works of art, which were part of her solo exhibition ‘STRIPPED’ at the museum of modern art Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Charlottenborg art centre in Copenhagen.

Cracks into other dimensions

In G.O.D. Porsager strips a disused wind turbine blade of its former function by slicing it into several metres long sections that are scattered on the floor. The wind turbine has virtually become a national symbol in Denmark. It is evident everywhere in the Danish landscape as a potent symbol of the sustainable energy that will bring us safely into the future. Even in this dissected state, the scale of the components is impressive. With this, Porsager offers a novel physical perception of a familiar object. Large openings reveal the inner cavity of the blades, bringing up associations to body orifices or portals into alternative dimensions. The dramatic change in pace, from high speed to total standstill, does not diminish the blade’s powerful expression. Porsager is fascinated with energy and vibrations, also after the movement has been completed, the motion stopped.

Sexually charged metal objects

BARE EXCITATION is an aluminium frame mounted with ten prayer wheels that, more than anything, seem to resemble sex toys. The phallic shapes are magnetized and mounted on ball bearings, and moving one wheel will activate its neighbours. The piece highlights magnetism as an energy field that only becomes visible through the resulting effect. Porsager enters into dialogue with Marcel Duchamp’s piece The Large Glass (1915–23), one of the principal pieces in the collection of Moderna Museet, by giving her own piece the same measurements as Duchamp’s. Duchamp shared Porsager’s interest in spiritualism.

About Lea Porsager

Lea Porsager (b. 1981) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in 2010, and she is currently studying for a PhD at Lund University. Her works explore such themes as spiritualism, feminism and science. She has exhibited at the art centre Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo, Kunstverein Göttingen and The Emily Harvey Foundation in New York, among other venues, and also participated in dOCUMENTA (13) and the 14th Istanbul Biennial. In 2018, her earthwork Gravitational Ripples was inaugurated at Djurgården in Stockholm, a memorial to the Swedish lives lost in the tsunami in South East Asia in 2004.