The tired mask of spring

The Tired Mask of Spring An exhibition by MARTIN AAGAARD HANSEN Artist Info: Martin Aagaard Hansen B.1988 Royal Danish Academy of art 2009-2015 Lives and works in Copenhagen. Most uncanny of all was a mysterious phenomenon that began with the animal invasion, increased rapidly, and led to the Dream Kingdom's complete collapse — the crumbling process. It attacked everything. Buildings made of all sorts of materials, objects collected through the years, everything that the Master had spent his gold for, all this was doomed to destruction. Cracks appeared simultaneously in all the walls, wood rotted, iron everywhere turned to rust, glassware grew muddy, cloth disintegrated. Valuable works of art fell irremediably victim to an inner decay, for which no adequate cause could be found. A sickness of lifeless matter. Mould and mildew invaded the best-kept houses. There must have been an unknown, destructive substance in the air, for fresh food, milk, meat, and later on eggs became sour and rotten in a few hours. Many houses began to collapse and had to be quickly abandoned by their tenants. On top of that came the ants! They were found in every crevice and fold, in clothes, in wallets, and in people's beds The biggest, the green, were in every crack in the walls and in the open country, wherever one set one's foot. The white, by far the most dangerous, transformed woodwork into powder. The most irritating, beyond question, were the red, for they elected to make their homes on the human body. At first, scratching was considered bad form and was carried on only in private. But what can one do when one itches? In the French Quarter everyone had been scratching for a long time. We had laughed at them — and soon we were doing the same thing. - Alfred Kubin, The Other Side Salon 75, Copenhagen