Martin Erik Andersen

Andersen lives and works in Copenhagen. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1985–92) and also in Cairo. 2009-2018 he was a professor at the Academy's department of sculpture. His installations draw on a variety of techniques and materials including textiles, creations on paper, video, sound and light as well as scaffolding, plants and polyester. They attract the viewer, providing a new perspective of familiar objects. His Freud's Gashgai (2011) in Statens Museum for Kunst is inspired by the rug on Sigmund Freud's couch which is now presented as a sculpted polyester relief. Like his other works, there is a relationship between the two-dimensional (the rug) and the three-dimensional (when spread over the couch) as well as between image and object. Other notable installations include Kingdom of dirt, a complex set of symmetric patterns on a concrete floor mosaic, and More give me more give me more — dette dit dørtrin, a huge upright purple carpet hanging on a steel frame representing a contemporary paraphrase of the Ardabil Carpet. It was on the basis of these pieces that he was awarded the Thorvaldsen Medal.