Fortunately, the Association of Visual Artists receives many new members all the time. In each issue of Biledkunstneren we present one of them – most recently Jonas Hollerup Helle.
By Steen Bruun Jensen, The magazine Billedkunstneren #3 2024
Where were you born and raised?
The Talk: Cher & David Lynch. Video by Jonas Hollerup Helle
I was born in Copenhagen, but grew up in Lynge, a small village outside Sorø. For the last ten years I have lived and worked in Copenhagen.
Where did you get your education?
I studied at the Funen Art Academy from 2018 to 2023, where I mostly worked with video. I also worked as a cutter and photographer, which gave me the technical skills and craftsmanship that I use in my art.
How would you describe your practice?
I primarily work with the appropriation of existing video material, for example clips from the internet and scenes from feature films. I'm interested in creating videos that make fictional situations appear real while also giving you the sense that something is wrong. Videos that balance on the point between the contrived and the authentic. An example of this is my ongoing work TheTalk; a talk show consisting of conversations that have never taken place between public figures whom we all know but have never met: visual artists, actors, musicians and politicians. I have achieved this by cutting separate interviews from the American talk show Charlie Rose together and remove the host. Apparently, the guests from two different episodes sit opposite each other and have a conversation that, due to the formal approach, is often funny and absurd. So far, there have been twenty "episodes" that can be found on YouTube, and which have gone viral several times across social media. Here the users, who are often fans of one or the other of the guests, discuss whether the conversations have taken place and why their idol sounds so strange if so. Their immediate conclusion is often that the video must be AI-generated.
The Talk: Kanye West & Elon Musk. Video by Jonas Hollerup Helle
However, my "leg span" is the complete opposite: to construct the dialogue solely based on what the original archive material allows. To find exactly the moments (a question, a look, a physical gesture, etc.) that are needed for the situation to appear believable, and yet not really add up. In this way, the work The Talk is also about internet users media literacy – their ability to 'read' and analyze media – as well as the parasocial relationships that occur between famous people and their followers. Right now I am working on a very extensive project, which is possible, among other things, because I have been lucky enough to get a work grant from the Statens Kunstfond. With the title psychos I make an hour and a half long video where I cut all of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho along with Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake of the film from 1998. Technically, it works in such a way that every time there is a cut in the original films, I switch films: from Hitchcock's clean, black-and-white universe to the newer film's colorful '90s look – and back again. The two of them
Jonas Hollerup Helle
main characters are now played by four different actors, which does not make the film any less creepy. I would like to create an experience that you experience both Psycho, as you know it and let yourself be carried away by the story, while at the same time being aware of the pervasive artistic approach: the 'clash' between the two films.
Why have you joined the Association of Visual Artists?
I joined BKF on the recommendation of friends/colleagues, and to seek advice for some of the situations you may find yourself in as a newly qualified artist. And it's nice to be able to go to a museum for free.
Watch the entire The Talk series here
On top: The Talk: Donald Trump & Puff Daddy. Video by Jonas Hollerup Helle