Frugal Activities is a solo exhibition by Ida Schrader, showcasing light installations and kinetic artworks that explore the complex and often paradoxical relationship betweenmans and nature, as well as the role of technology in mediating, enhancing, hindering, or even severing connections between them. 

Schrader uses light therapy lamps, which are widely implemented across Scandinavia to combat seasonal depression, to illuminate and mount various materials, such as contact lenses and organic elements. Through her artworks, she examines how technology can mimic natural phenomena, such as sunlight, and provide psychological benefits, as well as enhance senses, such as sight, through the use of contact lenses. However, she also exposes the irony of our dependence on technology and the unsustainable ways we exploit nature. For example, one of her kinetic works operates via solar-powered batteries, but due to the lack of sunlight, Schrader has no option but to use the light therapy lamp as a substitute, revealing how our seemingly "frugal" activities often end up wasting far more energy than expected.

Schrader questions the idea of progress, enhancement, protection, separation, and the creation of artificial boundaries by looking at how technology can both foster and hinder connections. Her works explore the dilemma between enhancing human capabilities with technology and the necessity to maintain some kind of contact with nature for our health and survival. The title of the exhibition, Frugal Activities, refers to our (often unsuccessful) attempts to "spare" nature in the only way we seem to know how - through the use of technology.

The shapes and patterns that appear in Schrader's installations examine how technology and geometry often imitate nature, such as the structure of bee hives, coral reefs, fish scales, and marine- and forest life. However, she also shows how technology can sever us from our natural environment—and at times, from one another. 

Frugal Activities invites the viewers to reflect on how nature shapes our perceptions of the world, and the fact that it is a constant reference point in human creation. The artist challenges the viewers to consider the risks and rewards of technology, and the possibility that our mimicry of nature in and through technology expresses a subconscious, primal longing for a diminishing natural world.

For more information about the exhibition or to book a gallery visit, do not hesitate to write to the curator Cila Brosius at crbbrosius@gmail.com (+45 53 54 85 95) or the artist Ida Schrader at idaschrader@icloud.com