Det Sidste Måltid, En Ny Begyndelse by Rie Elise Larsen

Rie Elise Larsen: The Last Meal – A New Beginning

Galleri Christoffer Egelund proudly presents The Last Meal – A New Beginning, the first solo exhibition at the gallery by Danish paper artist Rie Elise Larsen. The Last Meal – A New Beginning is an interactive, immersive installation in which Rie reinterprets the story of the Last Supper using her imaginative and exuberant paper flowers, casting the old biblical tale in a universal light of kaleidoscopic mirrors and luscious life. The exhibition, which consists of entirely new installation works, can be experienced at Bredgade 75 from February 21st until March 21st 2025.

The spectacular art of Rie Elise Larsen is one grace and lightness – an airy and delicate sea of flowers that embrace the viewer with their botanical magic. Walking among them is feeling like Alice in Wonderland, exploring an imaginative universe where oversized flowers and mystical creatures rule. Rie Elise Larsen’s artistic world is unapologetically feminine, celebrating delicate pinks, beauty, grace – and the strength that lies in allowing femininity to be explored to its fullest extent.
Creating an immersive artistic universe where the abundant beauty of flowers and the elegance of the unabashedly feminine gets to take center stage is by no means mere loveliness and decoration – for throughout history, women have been systemically excluded from the art scene, their art and self-expression deemed less worthy than that of men, no matter the degree of talent and thoughtfulness required to make it.

When the European art academies were founded from the mid-17th century onwards, women were not allowed to participate in this new form of art education. At this time in history, the most treasured genre of art was history painting: large-scale oil paintings depicting mythological scenes, most often from Greek mythology or The Bible. In order to be able paint a history painting, an utmost skill in depicting the human body in action was required, and this was one of the primary things taught in the academies. Here, artists learned anatomy and perspective and drew from sculptures and the live model for years in order to perfect their skill in depicting lifelike humans. Not until the last decades of the 19th century did women gain permission to participate in the artistic education offered by the academies. Thus, they were effectively excluded from being able to produce the kind of art that society deemed the highest artistic achievement. Instead, most often, they had to perfect their skills in genres that did not require many years of experience drawing from the live model: Flower painting and still life became female artistic genres par excellence. Outside the fine art sphere and the academies, however, women produced many artistic works of great creative worth, only they were made in mediums like needlework, sewing, knitting, drawing and watercolor painting.

Though traditionally associated with the home, craft and hobbies, these mediums are no less capable than oil paints at producing great and fascinating works of art; just look at, for instance, the so-called needle paintings of Mary Lindwood (1755-1845) which became one of the must-see attractions in London in her time, and the paper mosaics of Mary Delany (1700-1788) which created an entirely new, detailed way of depicting flowers. Such works of art created solely with paper have likewise been associated with craft and hobbies, sometimes even the childish. The Danish author Hans Christian Andersen is known for his intricate paper cut-out art illustrating his fairy tales. Paper silhouettes have been a popular medium for portraits since the 18th century, in recent times especially popular as souvenirs, and papier mâché has been used throughout history for making masks, toys, piñatas and other objects which are not expected to last for a very long time. However, paper as a medium can last for many centuries if treated with respect, as can be seen with the many books from as far back as the 15th century which we can still read today. Paper is a versatile material which can not only be used to make two-dimensional objects, but also three-dimensional structures such as the traditional Asian art of origami, and Rie Elise Larsen’s paper flowers. With her overwhelmingly beautiful flowers, Rie uses the medium of paper to its fullest, showing that even a medium like paper which has historically been excluded from the top of fine art, contains a wealth of hidden possibilities for new kinds of beauty beyond what we are used to seeing in museums and galleries.

With The Last Meal – A New Beginning Rie uses her paper art to reinterpret the Christian idea of the Last Supper. The Last Supper is one of the most important events of Easter and of the Christian faith as a whole. On Maundy Thursday, the evening before his crucifixion, Jesus asked the 12 disciples to gather for a meal with bread and wine. Here, he told them that one of them would betray him, which was true, as Judas had already sold Jesus out to the Romans for the price of 30 silver coins. But even though Jesus knew that one of his closest friends would betray him, he broke the bread and shared it with the disciples along with the wine, declaring that this was his body and his blood. Due to this unconditional forgiveness, those who believed in Jesus as the son of God were absolved of the Original Sin committed by Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden when, tempted by the devil in the guise of a snake, they disobeyed God. It is Jesus’ act of breaking the bread and sharing the wine which institutes the rite of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the central rite of the Christian mass, reinforcing the bond between those who believe in Christ and thus are forgiven for the Original Sin, as the term communion also indicates. With The Last Meal – A New Beginning, Rie Elise Larsen reinterprets the Last Supper, casting it in a universal light. Here, no one points fingers saying that only those of a certain faith may gain absolution – instead, Rie insists on common ground. We are all made of the same matter, just like the beautiful poppies that all sprout from the same seed pod, creating an interlinked network of beautiful individual, but connected flowers. Inside the delicate paper flowers, for instance in the giant annual honesty flower seed pods (annual honesty is fittingly called “Judas’ money” in Danish), one finds real flower seeds ready to sprout, creating new life and a new beginning a long time from now when the works are no more. By conveying the same message in many languages, Rie Elise Larsen shows that, while we may seem different at first glance, our thoughts are often the same. By incorporating language into her art, like the poems covering the many mirrors and the vases, Rie Elise Larsen emphasizes that language and visual art are not as different as we often assume; they are both means of communicating, and the poems, written in thick paint, becoming almost a painting in themselves, convey the same beautiful thoughts of unity and community as the purely visual works. Throughout the exhibition, the motif of a snake repeats itself – the serpent in the garden of Eden – but most often, it is eating its own tail. A serpent devouring its own tail is an ancient symbol of infinity, of the fact that every ending is a new beginning and that all is one. The symbol of a serpent devouring its own tail is also called an ouroboros, and it can be found throughout history in many different cultures around the world, even before the advent of Christianity. The oldest known depiction of the ouroboros can be found in the tomb of Tutankhammon, but it can also be seen in Norse mythology in the form of the World Serpent which devours itself, creating the border around the world of humans. Also Hinduist iconography and the tradition of alchemy include ouroboros symbology.

Thus, The Last Meal – A new Beginning is an exhibition combining the light, airy and strong beauty of the paper flowers with the all-embracing message that even though we may have our differences, in the end, humanity is one – a message worth carrying with you wherever you may go.

Rie Elise Larsen (b. 1972) holds an education as a visual merchandiser and has been working as a visual merchandiser for Royal Copenhagen for many years. She has also been working as a stylist for Danish and international magazines and has done visual merchandising for many companies in Denmark and internationally. She has been a paper artist since 2015. Her paper artworks have been exhibited at events at Thorvaldsen’s Museum and Charlottenborg art center and exhibition space in Copenhagen. Furthermore, her works have been exhibited at Brøg Litterature Bar, The Natural History Museum of Copenhagen, The Museums of the City of Odense and several galleries around Copenhagen.

Join us at the exhibition opening, meet the artist and experience live music by electronic duo MadMor at Bredgade 75 on the 21st of February 2025 from 16:00 to 19:00. For further information and sales requests, please contact the gallery at: hello@christofferegelund.dk or at +45 33 93 92 00. Visit us at Bredgade 75, DK-1260 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Opening hours: Wednesday-Friday 15:00-18:00, Saturday 12:00-16:00, or by appointment.