Abuse is the Beauty of the Working ClassBjarne Melgaard in collaboration with Bjørn Kristian Hilberg (Malbrum)
–Press release
VI, VII is delighted to present an experimental, collaborative exhibition by Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard (b.1967) and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg (b.1984), the founder and creative mind behind Malbrum fragrances.
Known for its ability to unsettle expectations and transgress norms through chaos, and a hyper-visual, almost unceasing distribution of drawings, images, objects and texts, Melgaard wide-ranging practice, which extends across the mediums of drawing, painting, installation, sculpture, video, fashion and the production of literature, is among the most meaningful and widely exhibited Norwegian artist’s of his generation.
Mentored by Rosendo Mateu following a lifelong interest in scent, Bjørn Kristian Hilberg founded the fragrance company Malbrum in 2010 and has lent technical knowledge and support to Melgaard’s own interests, improvising a scent laboratory in the artist’s studio from January-October 2024.
For Abuse is the Beauty of the Working Class, the laboratory has been relocated to VI, VII where three fragrances—the result of their ongoing experimentation—are presented alongside several new sculptures and video work.
With the fragrance “Stabfrenzy Forever” Melgaard and Hilberg worked towards a composition that reveals the darker sides of art. The scent “Joey,” an homage to gay porn actor Joey Stefano (1968-1994), is a formula marked by softness, while a third fragrance, “Speedball” — can be best described as uplifting.
Perculating in glass canisters, while it undergoes a tincturing process—a fourth fragrance, Crispo, is in development during the course of the show.
In addition to fragrances, the duo has collaborated on a series of stone and marble sculptures that take the form of tables, of varying heights.
In the exhibition, many of these elements—both the table sculptures, and two dimensional works, feature drawings by Melgaard and/or text etched into the surface of the stone, the tallest of which holds the test bottles and is inscribed with the words “BECAUSE I’M WORTH IT” in centuries old Italian marble.
Calling to mind Viking runes, gravestones and the tablets of many ancient cultures inscribed with poetry and verse, these tables become a support for the fragrances, as well as canvases for painting of another kind.
Amidst the crushed perfume bottles and facial creams are various elements that help to illustrate the artist’s life: a key exhibition catalogue, a magazine opened to a review of Melgaard’s 2013 show with Gavin Brown [1] and more recent publications that Bjarne has contributed to, such as the Opioid Crisis Lookbook,[2] which was marketed as the first narco-capitalist fueled lifestyle magazine.
For the artist, every item holds meaning.
A selection of stuffed animals used in the psychotherapy for children with schizophrenia are dotted throughout the exhibition where they appear individually, and in herds.
On a lonely pink pedestal a framed photograph of the artist’s father rests on one of these such animals, above the words “Debt” and “Court whore” scrawled by Melgaard repeatedly and obsessively in thick black marker, a reflection perhaps, on how the memory of individuals, support us in the present moment.
Through the use of stone, the artist combines material references to classicism with more palpable bygone personal histories and lived experiences that explore the associations of perfume and marble as expressions of both smell and death.
Recently, Melgaard explored bottling the scent of a specific breed of French Bulldog mixed with Chinese Crested.[3] With this show Melgaard was interested in bottling the scent of an individual: the expression and product of personality, lived experience and nature.
Delving further into a material exploration of the historical proper crosses with personal histories — a new video work, also collaborative, montages film clips from different eras and sources,[4] as a promotional video for the perfumes. After a 30 second opening of a calm sea view, the waters are disrupted by a detonation cloud. The footage, from the Atomic Testing Channel, introduces The End, the name of Hilberg and Melgaard’s perfume brand. The beginning of the film is thus the End. An animated figure drawn by the artist the falls from the sky… clothes scattered. When viewed in reverse, the following scenes which are filled with drugs, sex, mirth, and libidinal pleasures represented through film clips and racy scenes excerpted from advertisements and porn, together with brief insertions of Melgaard’s own drawings, culminating in transition between footage backed by 1970s Norwegian disco [5] and American psychedelic pop,[6] the latter timeframes marked by images of war, tanks, military exercises, and the failed takeoff of the Challenger explosion in 1986, a failure for which the news presenter says there are “no explanations, just sorrow at the tragedy.”
When viewed in reverse, scent, and breath are presented as the last of the best time.
Dance clips mix with heaty porn and documentary footage of a penguin breaking from the pack to walk across a great expanse of ice and snow. The transition from a youthful good time to more sobering footage of the Challenger expolsion, reminds us of the deep pleasures of life coming up against the present reality of uncertain futures – changing states, disappearing landscapes, environmental ruin and war.
Again, each element in the dense and highly chaotic moving image work is a vessel for meaning: even the final frame of the video is a portrait of Stefano, who before his tragic and untimely death at the age of 26, was a close personal friend of the artist. Eyes closed, the film frame pictures a quiet moment of reflection, or feeling of gratification, a buildup of lifes highs and lows.
[1] Saltz, Jerry. Bjarne Melgaard’s “Ignorant Transparencies,” New York Magazine, October 14, 2013.
[2] Edited by Dustin Cauchi, Pierre Alexandre Mateos, Charles Tessyou and Dasha Zaharova, Opioid Crisis Lookbook, Issue 1, September 2020
[3] The resulting fragrance, “I am your Dog,” was launched at Dover Street Market in Paris in October, 2024, in collaboration with Reference Studios, Berlin.
[4] Sources include John Carpenter, They Live; Samsara, Ron Fricke; Sebastiane, Derek Jarman and Paul Humfress.
[5] Oliver, Anita Skorgan, 1979
[6] Time of the Season, The Zombies, 1968
THANK YOU
The gallery and the artists would like to thank Patrice Deste, Kevin Birkeland, Karina Brustad, Erling Christensen, Marianne Cecilie Huseby, Stenhuset AS, Ethan Floro, Josie Rose Hilberg, Hedda Grevle Ottesen, Adam Sindre Johnson, K4 galleri, Christian Hagen Hoff, Louise Hoff, Tomas Christensen, Katrin Sundal, Ignat Wiig, Marte Dahlgren, Tonje Akselsen, Svetlana Nekrasova, Michael Skiri and Fredrikke Juliane Tordhol.
Exhibition view
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Etched marble and ephemera
51.75 × 210 × 122 cm (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches)
Etched marble and ephemera
51.75 × 210 × 122 cm (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches)
Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Mannequin, clothing
Mannequin, clothing
Exhibition view
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Etched Veronese marble and acrylic paint
93 × 79 × 20 cm (36 ⅝ × 31 ⅛ × 7 ⅞ inches)
Etched Veronese marble and acrylic paint
93 × 79 × 20 cm (36 ⅝ × 31 ⅛ × 7 ⅞ inches)
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Etched Veronese marble and acrylic paint
93 × 79 × 20 cm (36 ⅝ × 31 ⅛ × 7 ⅞ inches) (36 ⅝ × 31 ⅛ × 7 ⅞ inches)
Etched Veronese marble and acrylic paint
93 × 79 × 20 cm (36 ⅝ × 31 ⅛ × 7 ⅞ inches) (36 ⅝ × 31 ⅛ × 7 ⅞ inches)
Exhibition view
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Acrylic paint and marble
Acrylic paint and marble
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Dog bed
Dog bed
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Marker and charcoal on paper and stone
350 × 200 cm (137 ¾ × 78 ¾ inches)
Marker and charcoal on paper and stone
350 × 200 cm (137 ¾ × 78 ¾ inches)
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Marker and charcoal on paper and stone
350 × 200 cm (137 ¾ × 78 ¾ inches) (137 ¾ × 78 ¾ inches)
Marker and charcoal on paper and stone
350 × 200 cm (137 ¾ × 78 ¾ inches) (137 ¾ × 78 ¾ inches)
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Etched marble and ephemera
51.75 × 210 × 122 cm (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches)
Etched marble and ephemera
51.75 × 210 × 122 cm (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches)
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Etched marble and ephemera
51.75 × 210 × 122 cm (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches) (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches)
Etched marble and ephemera
51.75 × 210 × 122 cm (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches) (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches)
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Etched marble and ephemera
51.75 × 210 × 122 cm (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches) (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches) (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches)
Etched marble and ephemera
51.75 × 210 × 122 cm (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches) (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches) (20 ⅜ × 82 ⅝ × 48 inches)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Mannequin, clothing
Mannequin, clothing
Bjarne Melgaard
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024
Marble and ephemera
30 × 220 × 126 cm (11 ¾ × 86 ⅝ × 49 ⅝ inches)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard and Bjørn Kristian Hilberg
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Josie Rose Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Oil, acrylic and molotow cocktail ink on canvas, cotton tote bag and ephemera
Oil, acrylic and molotow cocktail ink on canvas, cotton tote bag and ephemera
Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Mannequin, clothing
Mannequin, clothing
Bjarne Melgaard
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard
Untitled, 2024
Hand-painted pedestal, ephemera
90 × 30 × 30 cm (35 ⅜ × 11 ¾ × 11 ¾ inches)
Bjarne Melgaard
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjørn Kristian Hilberg and Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Quartzite
140 × 90 × 30 cm (55 ⅛ × 35 ⅜ × 11 ¾ inches)
Quartzite
140 × 90 × 30 cm (55 ⅛ × 35 ⅜ × 11 ¾ inches)
Bjarne Melgaard, Untitled, 2024
Mannequin, clothing
Mannequin, clothing
Bjarne Melgaard
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Bjarne Melgaard
Untitled, 2024 (Detail)
Abuse is the Beauty of the Working Class
Abuse is the Beauty of the Working Class
Abuse is the Beauty of the Working Class
