MOLLY HASLUND: TEENAGERS EATING ICE CREAM CONES

At 14:29, on Sunday the 18th of October, a security guard waved his arms trying to clear the gang of teenagers that had gathered on the steps of Statens Museum for Kunst. None of them seemed too concerned by the flustered guard who had clearly missed this morning’s briefing. The confusion was brief and resolved quickly, yet but an element which Molly Haslund could not have anticipated for the day, proving her intention to subtly demonstrate the impossibility of recreating a passing moment.

So close to an ordinary situation, one can understand how the confusion arose. A passer-by may have assumed a school trip was happening that day but in fact, “Teenagers Eating Ice Cream Cones” was a performance mimicking the everyday. Whilst waiting in a queue at a museum in Arden, Germany a few years ago, Molly noticed a group of teenagers eating ice cream and was captivated by them “mastering being together, completely concentrated” and their peaceful occupation of the public space. Reflecting upon the dynamic between the teenagers as accidental performers and the other queuers as their unintentional audience, she became interested in “how people relate to each other in these relatively random situations,” both amongst the internal group and with those watching. The exchange of a glance, the subtle awareness of the other, and perhaps the feigned ignorance of being watched in public were of curiosity to the artist.

Whilst chatting to Molly about her practice, she conceded that her work “can be very different from piece to piece”. Looking over her previous projects however, it seems the unifying thread between them is her interest in people. Many of her projects are participatory or interactive whilst resisting definitions of socially engaged practice or community arts which often suggest philanthropic intentions. Her projects often include people but they are not necessarily for the direct benefit of those people; but rather used in the same vain as theatre; to comment and reflect society.

“Whilst waiting in a queue at a museum in Arden, Germany a few years ago, Molly noticed a group of teenagers eating ice cream and was captivated by them “mastering being together, completely concentrated” and their peaceful occupation of the public space.”

“If you see my other works, for example the swings, you have to be 8 people to swing. When you go behind the creating of the work – how hard it is to get a group of people to meet up at the same time. It’s a lot of preparation. To be social is a lot about timing.” Having studied her BA in the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and earning an MA from Glasgow School of Arts she now lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark operating across multiple disciplines including performance art, sculpture, text and video.

Many of her projects deal with how identity and social hierarchies are negotiated through bodily gestures, rituals, social designs and arrangements of our physical surroundings. With every work, she applies a flexible approach, allowing room for changes according to location, context and with the people involved. In “Teenagers Eating Ice-cream Cones” she adopts the role of a facilitator “like the host in creating the situation. I’m the artist but I’m also sort of like a waiter. I’m serving them to create that situation.”

During the performance, Teenagers Eating Ice cream Cones, 2020. Photo: Lily Tonkin Wells.

During the performance, Teenagers Eating Ice cream Cones, 2020. Photo: Lily Tonkin Wells.

In this case, just the act of noticing becomes a kind of discipline and practice. Observing a ‘happening’ and allowing it to gain value as it evolves into something beyond an idea or the original occurrence. However, the ice cream cones will always be a prevailing element in this work as an “optic that is defining the duration of the piece. As soon as the ice creams are eaten, the performance is over. So, it has a time element in it. And I was really aware of this when I saw the teenagers in Germany, because I had all the time I needed, whereas their time frame was defined by the ice cream.”

“The brevity of the performance; the speed at which an ice cream can be consumed, mirrors that of the transience of being a teenager. Yet, I wondered whether this heightened awareness of temporality may only register for older viewers who can reflect on their own experiences of this fragile “melting stage” point (...)”

The brevity of the performance; the speed at which an ice cream can be consumed, mirrors that of the transience of being a teenager. Yet, I wondered whether this heightened awareness of temporality may only register for older viewers who can reflect on their own experiences of this fragile “melting stage” point when the world is full of excitement and life moves at a faster pace. As an audience member, yet having followed Molly’s work, I questioned whether the other viewers recognised the power of their collective gaze in activating this work? And whether they were prompted to notice how the very act of observation can lead towards a greater consciousness of self? I also wondered whether this collection of adolescents indulging in a sweet treat would register as art without the steps of a gallery to situate it? As for the teenagers themselves, this may just have been some free ice cream in the sun with some friends.

However, acknowledging their roles as performers was why the teenagers didn’t budge when told to move by the guard. They seemed at ease, taking the time to enjoy their afternoon spent together whilst an audience had gathered to watch. In a normal situation, the degree of concentration in watching a group of strangers would be bizarre yet this context pre-determined the binary relationship between the audience and performer.

During the performance, Teenagers Eating Ice cream Cones, 2020. Photo: Lily Tonkin Wells.

Through this awareness of performativity is where I think the recreation most differs to that original moment in Aarden; because the performance was not the same fleeting moment captured by chance but instead, an artwork organised and accredited by a national museum, and advertised to invite a discourse around contemporary art.

Undoubtedly, Molly recognised that this functions as part of the work. As she said herself, her efforts to re-stage this ‘happening’ from Germany “can almost only fail”, as each recreation only lends itself to more and more variations, whether in the clothes the teenagers wear, their hairstyles, the ice cream flavours. “But I think the work is existing in the fact that I’m trying,” she added. It is also this room for changeability, the fact that every moment will be different, which contributes to the work itself.

“I think the work is existing in the fact that I’m trying.”

The “pre-documentation photograph” in black and white is another element to this work, It was taken and displayed prior to the day, nodding to the “performance tradition of the 60s and 70s,” when often just a single photograph would archive an ephemeral artwork. Standing before the photo, I couldn’t help but think how stylish these 13-16 years olds are, clad in flared denim jeans, chunky white trainers, choker necklaces and hoop earrings, already harking back to the 90s demonstrating how nostalgic the fashion industry is. Through this photo which merges multiple decades into one, time is “displaced” creating a situation where the viewer might wonder “whether this is the same group of teenagers or whether the performance is a recreation of this photograph from a long time ago.”

Molly Haslund, ‘Pre-documentation’ Photograph, SMK. Courtesy of the artist, 2020.

Before leaving, each of the teenagers was handed a copy of this ‘pre-documentation’ photograph. Intrigued to know the levels of interests the teenagers had with the work, I asked Molly whether she thought they grasped the concept behind the piece.

“I’m curious maybe at some point to hear what they think but maybe it’s more relevant in a few years… Middle-aged people eating ice cream cones perhaps.”

She admitted that “None of them have ever asked. I’m curious maybe at some point to hear what they think but maybe it’s more relevant in a few years… Middle-aged people eating ice cream cones perhaps.” Perhaps, this parting souvenir may prompt some reflection of their role in this piece and maybe even some nostalgia of these passed years a little later in life.

Molly’s photograph will be on display amongst 104 other new works by Danish contemporary artists recently acquired by SMK with funding from the New Carlberg Foundation. The collection will remain on display until 2022.