Visiting Visual Artist Lotte Bækgaard at her studio in Hørning
Text and photography by Nora Benz | November 2021
For centuries, artists have been concerned with the delicate line between private and public in various creative ways. Through different media, visual artist Lotte Bækgaard addresses intimate topics around human mentality or motherhood, and explores art as form of expression of personal experiences and struggles in a particularly insightful way. On a sunny and warm fall day, Articulate paid the Danish artist a visit in her home studio at the outskirts of Aarhus.
You call yourself a visual artist and work within the fields of analog photography, sculpturing, performance as well as installation. Do you have a preferred media or form of expression?
- I think photography is still my preferred media. I always work with analog photography, and shoot on film and develop and scan afterwards. I studied fine art photography, so photography is just what I know. However, I also feel very limited by it. Although you can present a photograph in many ways, hang it on a wall or put it in a physical book, it is still a flat media. Therefore, I also work with other medias and combine photography in a more installational way.
- I think photography is still my preferred media. I always work with analog photography, and shoot on film and develop and scan afterwards. I studied fine art photography, so photography is just what I know. However, I also feel very limited by it. Although you can present a photograph in many ways, hang it on a wall or put it in a physical book, it is still a flat media. Therefore, I also work with other medias and combine photography in a more installational way.
You always keep a sketchbook and according to what I could see on your website your sketchbooks look like pieces of art themselves. Can you explain the work with your sketchbooks a little bit more?
- I think I am dependent on my sketchbooks. I see it as a safe and free space where I can put down ideas, sketches and thoughts. It’s a space where everything can come down without being judged; everything is allowed. I then take the best ideas and evolve them further. My sketchbooks are on the one hand places where I elaborate on ideas before making my art. And on the other hand I also use them while making the pieces as well as afterwards to document a piece of work I have done. In addition, I use the sketchbooks for research. Whenever I have an idea I look into what other people have done. Not only to get inspiration but also to not do the same thing. When I was studying, the teachers wanted us to make sketchbooks in order to document our working processes somehow. Through the sketchbooks my communication became a little bit clearer. Also because I always had in mind that someone else would read it as well. Obviously no one is reading it now but I still have this form of communication to myself. Of course it takes more time as I need to find a picture on the computer and then print it, cut it and glue it. But I like the entire process, like with analog photography, it takes more time but it gives so much to me.
- I think I am dependent on my sketchbooks. I see it as a safe and free space where I can put down ideas, sketches and thoughts. It’s a space where everything can come down without being judged; everything is allowed. I then take the best ideas and evolve them further. My sketchbooks are on the one hand places where I elaborate on ideas before making my art. And on the other hand I also use them while making the pieces as well as afterwards to document a piece of work I have done. In addition, I use the sketchbooks for research. Whenever I have an idea I look into what other people have done. Not only to get inspiration but also to not do the same thing. When I was studying, the teachers wanted us to make sketchbooks in order to document our working processes somehow. Through the sketchbooks my communication became a little bit clearer. Also because I always had in mind that someone else would read it as well. Obviously no one is reading it now but I still have this form of communication to myself. Of course it takes more time as I need to find a picture on the computer and then print it, cut it and glue it. But I like the entire process, like with analog photography, it takes more time but it gives so much to me.
Do you also sometimes just start creating art? Or do you always have an idea in your sketchbook first?
- I don’t always have an idea outlined in my sketchbook. For instance, for a recent project I made 40 reliefs, flat sculptures. I didn’t plan how each of them were gonna look like in advance. I just had this idea of making 40 plaster reliefs and then I continued working intuitively. I often do that. I am not a conceptual artist as such. I start with an idea and then go from there.
- I don’t always have an idea outlined in my sketchbook. For instance, for a recent project I made 40 reliefs, flat sculptures. I didn’t plan how each of them were gonna look like in advance. I just had this idea of making 40 plaster reliefs and then I continued working intuitively. I often do that. I am not a conceptual artist as such. I start with an idea and then go from there.
In your photographic work Sertraline you address the relation between the private and what we show to the outside world. As you draw a lot of your art practice from personal experiences and also work with very intimate topics such as human mentality, depression or motherhood, how do you deal with making yourself and your work so vulnerable?
- That’s a good question. I am aware that my work has different impressions on different audiences. Some people find it interesting and some people find it too much. And I have to accept that it’s not for everybody. But even though I make very personal projects I hope that my subjects are kind of universal and relatable, too. Maybe people have not experienced exactly the same but they will hopefully be able to relate to it in some way. Even though some projects are about me, include pictures of me or a personal text that I wrote, I feel a distance towards the work. Like the project Sertraline which consists of 680 self-portraits: when I see the entire project it’s very easy for me to talk about it or to look at it because it’s an art piece. I don’t think about it as me.
- That’s a good question. I am aware that my work has different impressions on different audiences. Some people find it interesting and some people find it too much. And I have to accept that it’s not for everybody. But even though I make very personal projects I hope that my subjects are kind of universal and relatable, too. Maybe people have not experienced exactly the same but they will hopefully be able to relate to it in some way. Even though some projects are about me, include pictures of me or a personal text that I wrote, I feel a distance towards the work. Like the project Sertraline which consists of 680 self-portraits: when I see the entire project it’s very easy for me to talk about it or to look at it because it’s an art piece. I don’t think about it as me.
How does art help you dealing with your personal experiences and struggles?
- It makes me feel like it wasn’t pointless. For example, I made a piece about my miscarriage as it was a very hurtful experience and I was ruined from it. But when I made this piece it felt like this awful experience got a meaning. The miscarriage happened but at least I could make this piece of art out of it. So making art helped me dealing with the experience.
- It makes me feel like it wasn’t pointless. For example, I made a piece about my miscarriage as it was a very hurtful experience and I was ruined from it. But when I made this piece it felt like this awful experience got a meaning. The miscarriage happened but at least I could make this piece of art out of it. So making art helped me dealing with the experience.
For the performance The Artist as a Waitress (a performance programme and interdisciplinary collaboration) you collaborated with two other artists, Tam Vibberstoft and Pernille Poet. What role does collaboration and the exchange with other artists play for you?
- Collaborating with other artists was and is a beautiful experience. I would love to do it more often. The performance was about shared personal experiences and our different approaches to the project made it stronger. I would have never been able to do the performance project without them. Before making The Artist as Waitress (Kunsten at Tjene) I had only done a few performance pieces so the collaboration did not only give a lot to the project, but also gave me confidence in performance and performing.
- Collaborating with other artists was and is a beautiful experience. I would love to do it more often. The performance was about shared personal experiences and our different approaches to the project made it stronger. I would have never been able to do the performance project without them. Before making The Artist as Waitress (Kunsten at Tjene) I had only done a few performance pieces so the collaboration did not only give a lot to the project, but also gave me confidence in performance and performing.
You have been living in a lot of different countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Iceland or Scotland. Did you notice any differences between the art scenes in the different places?
- Yes, well, when I was living in Sweden and Scotland I was studying at the academy so I didn’t really have experience with the "real" art scene because I was mostly within the school environment which is like a closed bubble. But there was a big difference in the way of teaching between Scotland and Sweden. I think the main experience I have with the art scene outside of the university bubble is between Copenhagen and Aarhus - and there are quite a lot of differences between the two cities.
- Yes, well, when I was living in Sweden and Scotland I was studying at the academy so I didn’t really have experience with the "real" art scene because I was mostly within the school environment which is like a closed bubble. But there was a big difference in the way of teaching between Scotland and Sweden. I think the main experience I have with the art scene outside of the university bubble is between Copenhagen and Aarhus - and there are quite a lot of differences between the two cities.
Can you elaborate on this a little bit more?
- Well, obviously the Aarhus art scene is much smaller. There are fewer places and fewer artists. I found myself feeling more comfortable here, exactly because it is smaller. In Aarhus there is for example Billedkunstcenteret which is like a face to the art scene. When I moved to Aarhus, I went to the center just to talk to the people working there and I immediately felt like I was a part of it. I always found myself feeling like a stranger in Copenhagen. It made me feel insecure and as if I didn’t have a voice. On the other hand, there is much more going on in Copenhagen and I miss out on a lot of opportunities and exhibitions and so on.
- Well, obviously the Aarhus art scene is much smaller. There are fewer places and fewer artists. I found myself feeling more comfortable here, exactly because it is smaller. In Aarhus there is for example Billedkunstcenteret which is like a face to the art scene. When I moved to Aarhus, I went to the center just to talk to the people working there and I immediately felt like I was a part of it. I always found myself feeling like a stranger in Copenhagen. It made me feel insecure and as if I didn’t have a voice. On the other hand, there is much more going on in Copenhagen and I miss out on a lot of opportunities and exhibitions and so on.
When you say you felt insecure and like a stranger, did you also experience gate-keeping especially when you were younger and newer in the art scene? Or in other words, was it hard for you to get a foot into the door and enter the art scene?
- Yes, definitely. And I still don’t see myself as part of the established art scene yet. It is very elitist but I think it’s like that everywhere; probably all over the world. But I think part of why I feel like it is hard to - like you said - get a foot into the door, has to do with the fact that I studied abroad. In the Danish art scene there is a hierarchy among the art academies with the Royal Academy being regarded as the best. I don’t think that academies from outside of Denmark are regarded as worse or bad but you just don’t have the Royal Academy stamp. And you also don’t know people. So when I moved back to Denmark after studying abroad, I didn’t know people and I didn’t know who I didn’t know. And I think a lot of other artists who studied abroad struggle with that as well. But I think something changed for me after I moved to Aarhus as I felt like I was closer to the scene whereas in Copenhagen it felt like there was a big distance. For me personally, a huge change happened after last year, when I was invited to exhibit at Young Danish Photography as this was like an entrance for me to get a foot into the door. Because after the exhibition, quite a lot of people noticed my work.
- Yes, definitely. And I still don’t see myself as part of the established art scene yet. It is very elitist but I think it’s like that everywhere; probably all over the world. But I think part of why I feel like it is hard to - like you said - get a foot into the door, has to do with the fact that I studied abroad. In the Danish art scene there is a hierarchy among the art academies with the Royal Academy being regarded as the best. I don’t think that academies from outside of Denmark are regarded as worse or bad but you just don’t have the Royal Academy stamp. And you also don’t know people. So when I moved back to Denmark after studying abroad, I didn’t know people and I didn’t know who I didn’t know. And I think a lot of other artists who studied abroad struggle with that as well. But I think something changed for me after I moved to Aarhus as I felt like I was closer to the scene whereas in Copenhagen it felt like there was a big distance. For me personally, a huge change happened after last year, when I was invited to exhibit at Young Danish Photography as this was like an entrance for me to get a foot into the door. Because after the exhibition, quite a lot of people noticed my work.
What is your favorite corner/part/thing in your studio?
- Probably this chair; just because it’s so comfortable. I think sitting right here, having this view over the garden and working is my favorite spot. I also did quite a lot of work late in my pregnancy and sitting in this chair made it much more comfortable. I got the chair as a birthday gift from my boyfriend. Nevertheless, I need a bigger studio space. The studio in the basement is too small, there just isn’t enough room. We plan to build something in the garden and I am also looking into studios in Aarhus. But it is so competitive; there are not nearly enough studios for all artists.
- Probably this chair; just because it’s so comfortable. I think sitting right here, having this view over the garden and working is my favorite spot. I also did quite a lot of work late in my pregnancy and sitting in this chair made it much more comfortable. I got the chair as a birthday gift from my boyfriend. Nevertheless, I need a bigger studio space. The studio in the basement is too small, there just isn’t enough room. We plan to build something in the garden and I am also looking into studios in Aarhus. But it is so competitive; there are not nearly enough studios for all artists.
Would you prefer to have your studio somewhere else, outside the house, or do you like having your studio in your house?
- There are cons and pros for both I guess. I really like the idea of going to work, going somewhere. It would be lovely to have a studio out of the house. On the other hand it costs more money. And with two small children a home studio is quite convenient. In spring for instance, I was working under time pressure for an exhibition and at that time I had to work in the evenings as well. If my studio space had been somewhere else, it would have been very difficult for me to finish my work. But as I could work in my basement I was still able to take care of my daughter and take part in family dinners. Ideally, however, I would separate living and working a bit more than I do now.
- There are cons and pros for both I guess. I really like the idea of going to work, going somewhere. It would be lovely to have a studio out of the house. On the other hand it costs more money. And with two small children a home studio is quite convenient. In spring for instance, I was working under time pressure for an exhibition and at that time I had to work in the evenings as well. If my studio space had been somewhere else, it would have been very difficult for me to finish my work. But as I could work in my basement I was still able to take care of my daughter and take part in family dinners. Ideally, however, I would separate living and working a bit more than I do now.
How do you know when to end working on a piece of work?
- It’s done when the deadline is; then it has to be done. I have something with numbers though: I decide in advance how many pieces, how much or how big I want to create. In this way I have a specific target I am working towards. But it’s still very difficult to know when to end. For instance, I made these 40 sculptures I mentioned earlier and I started with the first one and moved on and by the end, when I reached number 40, I thought that the last 10 pieces I made were so much better than the first ones. So I went back to the first sculptures and started to change them until the deadline was there and I had to stop - which was stupid. No one else could see the difference, it was just me who was thinking that the first sculptures were not good enough.
- It’s done when the deadline is; then it has to be done. I have something with numbers though: I decide in advance how many pieces, how much or how big I want to create. In this way I have a specific target I am working towards. But it’s still very difficult to know when to end. For instance, I made these 40 sculptures I mentioned earlier and I started with the first one and moved on and by the end, when I reached number 40, I thought that the last 10 pieces I made were so much better than the first ones. So I went back to the first sculptures and started to change them until the deadline was there and I had to stop - which was stupid. No one else could see the difference, it was just me who was thinking that the first sculptures were not good enough.
Do you have some kind of finishing routine or a ritual before you finish a piece of work for good?
- I usually document the piece quite a lot as I do with the entire process. That's a really important part of my working process. That’s also what I use my sketchbooks for. I take pictures of the different stages of my work and I also take pictures of the finished piece in the end. I realized that when I am working, new ideas for next projects come. So it’s quite often that when I am working on a specific piece I get an idea for the next one. When I was younger I thought that inspiration would just come to me. But I realized that yes, sometimes it does, but usually it comes from working. I just have to get started in the morning and then my inspiration will come from working.
- I usually document the piece quite a lot as I do with the entire process. That's a really important part of my working process. That’s also what I use my sketchbooks for. I take pictures of the different stages of my work and I also take pictures of the finished piece in the end. I realized that when I am working, new ideas for next projects come. So it’s quite often that when I am working on a specific piece I get an idea for the next one. When I was younger I thought that inspiration would just come to me. But I realized that yes, sometimes it does, but usually it comes from working. I just have to get started in the morning and then my inspiration will come from working.
What you describe with regard to inspiration is a very romanticized way of how we think about creating art. It’s what movies etc. teach us…
- Exactly. We think that big ideas come from walking around in the mountains. And maybe they do once in a while but usually getting inspiration and creating art has to be much more organized and structured. Being an artist also involves so much time sitting at the computer, filling out applications, writing descriptions of your work and all these boring things.
- Exactly. We think that big ideas come from walking around in the mountains. And maybe they do once in a while but usually getting inspiration and creating art has to be much more organized and structured. Being an artist also involves so much time sitting at the computer, filling out applications, writing descriptions of your work and all these boring things.
Do you have a favorite time of the day to be in the studio?
- I really like the mornings. It’s weird because I used to be a night owl who would sleep in and work all night instead. But nowadays I like getting up in the morning, drinking a good cup of coffee and then having the entire day. I also like Mondays, the beginning of a fresh new week. Monday is the day when I check my emails and wonder if I got any exciting news from other people. But I also like Fridays.
- I really like the mornings. It’s weird because I used to be a night owl who would sleep in and work all night instead. But nowadays I like getting up in the morning, drinking a good cup of coffee and then having the entire day. I also like Mondays, the beginning of a fresh new week. Monday is the day when I check my emails and wonder if I got any exciting news from other people. But I also like Fridays.
Do you find it difficult to stop working on a Friday? I guess it can be tempting to never really stop working when you love your job and additionally have your studio in your house.
- Usually it is not too difficult. But when I am in the middle of something like, for instance, this week, when I picked up some rolls of film and was really excited to scan them and see how the photos I took turned out, then I find it very difficult to stop working.
- Usually it is not too difficult. But when I am in the middle of something like, for instance, this week, when I picked up some rolls of film and was really excited to scan them and see how the photos I took turned out, then I find it very difficult to stop working.
What are you currently working on?
- I am currently on maternity leave, but I have a couple of ongoing projects. I have a new exhibition in Aarhus in February which I am working on. It will be at the kitchen gallery Hjemme Igen. The topic of my work for this exhibition is the domestic, and I will also be showing photographs of my childhood home, which is a theme I have been working on before. I will also be making a flag for the kitchen gallery because there is alway one hanging outside the kitchen window. In the spring I am exhibiting at KH7 Artspace. That will be my biggest solo show so far, and I have slowly started to work on sketches for that, too.
- I am currently on maternity leave, but I have a couple of ongoing projects. I have a new exhibition in Aarhus in February which I am working on. It will be at the kitchen gallery Hjemme Igen. The topic of my work for this exhibition is the domestic, and I will also be showing photographs of my childhood home, which is a theme I have been working on before. I will also be making a flag for the kitchen gallery because there is alway one hanging outside the kitchen window. In the spring I am exhibiting at KH7 Artspace. That will be my biggest solo show so far, and I have slowly started to work on sketches for that, too.