Jeannette Ehlers

Jeannette Ehlers (born 1973) is a Danish-Trinidadian artist based in Copenhagen. Her work address's themes and questions around race, colonialism, and the Black memory/history in Denmark. Ehlers is a multifaceted artist who uses a variety of different mediums to convey her narrative and perspective on the lost memory of Black history in Denmark. Ehlers is an experimental artist, her art takes different forms as she uses different mediums such as photography, video, installation, sculpture and performance. Being black in a predominately white area in Denmark opened up an abundance of questions for Ehlers about her black ancestry and history. Ehlers had felt as if a lot of her emotions and history was suppressed from her, and she channeled these feelings and emotions into her art. She is well-known for co-creating the public art project, a monumental public sculpture, '' I Am Queen Mary'' with La Vaugh Belle in 2018. It is the first public statue of a Black woman in Denmark and depicts Mary Thomas, leader of the 1878 St. Croix labor riot.

Biography

Jeannette Ehlers was born in 1973 in Holstebro Trinidadian. From a very early age Ehlers knew she wanted to be an artist. When she was 14 years old, she modeled for a designer school in Denmark, and that influenced her decision to become an artist. Ehlers started to concentration in visual art through drawing during her late teens. Ehlers then applies to a couple art classes during her early 20s. She then applied for The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Denmark, which only accept a small number of people during each application period, and she did not get accepted the first time around. She wasn't accepted to The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts until she was about 24 years old.

Works of Art (From Latest to Earliest)

The statue of Mary Thomas called “ I Am Queen Mary” created by artists Jeannette Ehlers and La Vaughn Belle

Transnational public art project, sharing the Caribbean roots and colonial history that connects not only the two artists who created this monument, but with people effected around the world.

This art piece is a statue of a woman, named Mary Thomas, is almost 23 feet tall, sitting in a wide-backed chair, holding a torch on her left hand and a tool for cutting sugar cane on the right hand. This woman is wearing a dress, head wrapped and is sitting bare foot while looking straight ahead. This statue represents a 19th century rebel woman, referred to as a queen, who led a revolt in the Caribbean against Danish colonial rule. This monument is a memorial to commemorate Danish colonial impact in the Caribbean and the individuals who choose to fight against it. This is the first public monument of a black woman in Denmark, where most of the public monuments are of white men.

In 1878 an uprising called the "Fireburn" lead by "the three queens," Mary Thomas being one of those queens, inspired this monument. "Fireburn" took place in Frederiksted in St. Croix, where fifty plantations and most of the town was burned. This was called the largest labor revolt in Danish history. Denmark had prohibited the trans-Atlantic slave trafficking in 1792, but they did not enforce the ban right away, which led to the rule taking effect 11 years later. They wanted to ensure that there were enough slaves to keep the plantations running, Slavery continued until 1848, and the conditions for former slaves did not improve. Through this injustice was how the uprising on St. Croix took place.

Jeannette Ehlers, ''Diasporic Frequencies,'' 2023

This exhibition was made by Jeannette Ehlers with Konate's Residency's research and education to show the power of colonial influence, colonial history, and the African Diaspora. This exhibition is a series of photographs targeted to discuss and reveal the long-standing effects of European Colonialism, as well as a deep dive into spirituality and wisdom. A public conversation program worked alongside this exhibition to bring to light education, colonial history and diaspora, and a poetry salon. In Ehlers exhibition she uses elements of braided hair and dirt to represent slavery in the plantations about how they are being held against their will in the Caribbean due to colonization.

The theme of the exhibition is the relationship between human, nature, and culture, which reveals the trauma that hides behind the concept of diaspora and colonization. Ehlers wants to start a conversation and bring to light the neglected history of the diaspora and its identity within our communities. Ehlers and Konate's Residency work together to help heal, change, and create a common meeting ground where people of various differences can come together.

Jeannette Ehlers, ''We’re Magic. We’re Real #3 (These Walls, 2023; Channeling Re-existence into Hollowed Grounds of Healing, 2022; These Walls 2021; From sunset to sunrise, #10, 2021)''

Jeannette Ehlers started working on the ''We're Magic. We're Real'' in 2020. This series includes photographs, installations and live performances that uses hair to show how it is an important identity maker across communities of African descent. ''We're Magic. We're Real'' was initially commissioned by Danish designer Mads Norgaard and first performed in November 2021 and featured Ehlers accompanied by supporting performers of African ancestry. All performers were connected to the front of a colonial building using long cornrows as if the braids were growing out of it. Ehlers also makes a poetic metaphor when intertwining the hair with the leaves of the climbers covering the building to symbolize the relationship between culture and nature, body and landscape, history and the present.

''We're Magic. We're Real'' was also presented at PAMM ( Perez Art Museum Miami), local Afro-Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora community throughout Miami was invited to do a collaboration by participating in a collective intergenerational braiding circle, that took place on September 21, 2024 in the East Portico of the Museum, which created an 85-foot-long braid that was used during the performance event held a few days after.

Jeannette Ehlers, ''Moko is Future,'' 2022.

Jeannette Ehlers, Gle, 2022.

Jeannette Ehlers, Jumbie Tree: The Flesh of Tree. The Flesh of Skin, 2022.

Jeannette Ehlers, In The Time of Ongoing War, Can We Flee into Each Other?, 2022.

Jeannette Ehlers, Coil: The Sensuous Way of Knowing, 2022.

Jeannette Ehlers, Worksongs, 2022

Jeannette Ehlers, Until the Lion, 2021

Jeannette Ehlers, Secret Pathways to Freedom, 2021

Jeannette Ehlers, ''Whip It Good,'' 2015-16.

Jeannette Ehlers, Because of the Spirits, 2015.

Jeannette Ehlers, There is Nothing More Dangerous, 2015.

Jeannette Ehlers, Uden titel (Mulatten, 4. akt, 8. scene. HCA), 2015.

Jeannette Ehlers, Black Bullets, 2012

References

External links

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I Am Queen Mary artwork website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehlers, Jeannette
Caribbean artists
Danish artists
Living people
1973 births
Place of birth missing (living people)
Danish people of Trinidad and Tobago descent
Artists from Copenhagen