Hannah Toticki, Storage of the Gods at Copenhagen Contemporary (2023). Photo: David Stjernholm

Hannah Toticki

Storage of the Gods

13.10.23

– 01.04.24

Explore Storage of the Gods featuring archived guardian angels, dreams in the shape of clay sculptures, and a collection of unique crowns. The exhibition is created by the upcoming Danish artist Hannah Toticki. With humour, imagination and earnestness, the exhibition investigates what it’s like to live and create meaning in a time without a common sacred.

The Western philosophical tradition has long declared that God is dead. In Storage of the Gods, Hannah Toticki looks at the void left behind by religious traditions and rituals in today’s world. The exhibition takes the pulse of absence and longing in three different zones exploring conceptions of the divine.

The first zone features a collection of wings belonging to guardian angels we are missing. They are based on testimonials by more than 300 people describing the guardian angels they already have or wish they had. In our busy day-to-day lives do we miss something divine, something bigger than ourselves?

In a collected archive, you can read about the many angels and meet, for example, the Guardian Angel of Housework, the Guardian Angel of the Socially Awkward, the Guardian Angel of the Night Sky and many others— you are also invited to contribute with your own text about the guardian angel you are missing.

The second zone of Storage of the Gods presents a collection of archived dreams manifested in the form of humanoid clay figures. Sleeping on piles of dirt, the figures embody the link between the human and the divine that dreams have formed throughout history.

The final zone is a storehouse for an assortment of crowns. Historically, crowns have been worn by rulers to symbolize a direct connection to the divine. Bearing titles like Ruler of the Nervous System, Ruler of Performance and Ruler of Tides, the crowns here point to an altogether different truth: that, at the end of the day, we are just people.

A key theme in Toticki’s art is the meaning of working life. The artist examines the role of work as a collective and ethical obligation, especially as a creator of identity and meaning in the life of the individual. Work is probably the closest thing in late modern society to an institution that fills the role of religion. Meanwhile, more people than ever before – especially the young – are struggling with stress, anxiety and depression.

With the diminishing presence of religion in society, the big questions of life are left to the individual. In Storage of the Gods, Toticki has created a unique landscape of works sparking all-too-rare conversations that insist on situating the individual within a community.

Experience Storage of the Gods until April 1, 2024.

About Hannah Toticki

Hannah Toticki lives and works in Denmark. She has shown in the USA, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. Awarded the Danish Arts Foundation’s three-year grant in 2022.