A R T S T A M P . D K

INVISIBLE EMPIRE

Jeannette Ehlers is a Copenhagen-based artist of Danish and Trinidadian descent, whose practice unfolds experimentally across sculpture, film, performance, and installation. She graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2006, and her works have been shown in both Danish and international contexts. Ehlers’ work often revolves around decolonial themes, bringing decolonial hauntings and disruptions to the forefront, while insisting on the possibility of empowerment and healing through her art. Her works honor the legacies of resistance in the African diaspora and combine the historical, the collective, and the rebellious with the familial, the bodily, and the poetic. In the words of author Lesley-Ann Brown, “Ehlers reminds all who participate in or gaze at her work that history is not in the past.”

Ehlers is known for her powerful performances, such as Whip it Good from 2014, where she, dressed in white, whips a large white canvas with a bullwhip dipped in coal. Her work often addresses the Danish slave trade during colonial times, a theme she also explores in the piece The Invisible Empire. In this work, she collaborates with her father, Roy Clement Pollard, as a narrator and performer. Her father is from Trinidad, and her mother is Danish, and by incorporating her own ethnic background, she magnifies reality to study the consequences of eroding information. With The Invisible Empire, Ehlers shifts focus to contemporary human trafficking, subtly intertwining her personal history with the narrative of the work. Her exploration of historical ties and personal implications creates a strong impact on the viewer while raising awareness of servitude in globalized societies.

In 2018, following the centenary of the sale of the Danish West Indies, Jeannette Ehlers, in collaboration with artist La Vaughn Belle from the U.S. Virgin Islands, unveiled the monumental sculpture I Am Queen Mary at the West India Warehouse in Copenhagen. The sculpture is a hybrid of the two artists' bodies, but more importantly, it celebrates Mary Thomas, who led a major rebellion on St. Croix in 1878, where workers lived under conditions resembling slavery. After the uprising, Mary Thomas was imprisoned in the women’s prison in Christianshavn. I Am Queen Mary stands as one of the most successful examples of public art in Denmark and has also garnered significant international attention.

Ehlers is an engaging artist who, through her personal background reveals the racist and oppressive structures that still today are a consequence of our shared history. Her art prompts reflection on the influence of the past on contemporary society and is presented with a formal understanding and format that is particularly convincing.

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