The Quest for (a new) identity

Text by: Art historian and Art Critic Trine Ross

We tend to forget that our personal identity is negotiable and is constantly being negotiated around and inside us. But when we forget, the artworks of Mille Kalsmose-Hjelmborg are here to remind us.
One such work is the ongoing project ’All My Suicides’ which has so far resulted in both a Part One and a Part Two. The first part consists of Kalsmose-Hjelmborg’s many new name certificates – from the name, ”Henriette Olesen”, she was christened through several variations until she reached her present name, ”Mille Kalsmose-Hjelmborg”, in 2008.
The name we are given by our parents reveals many aspects of our selves. Most names are gender specific, but they often also reveal our nationality, age and background. But names can be changed and maybe we can change with them.
And behind each new name taken by Kalsmose-Hjelmborg lies a wish for change and a will to take charge of her own destiny – and identity.
In ’All My Suicides - Part Two’ Kalsmose-Hjelmborg lies her former identities to rest and carves a headstone in memory of each and every one of them. Thereby reminding us, that even as we change, evolve or just grow older, we still carry our past as part of the present, painful or joyous as it may be. And only by facing this fundamental fact we can truly ... change.