Same Blood, Not The Same Heart

Born in Denmark and now based in Berlin, Peter Linde Busk appropriates a wide variety of mythic, literary and popular sources, creating a cast of failed heroes who reflect his own anxieties about contemporary society. Executed in 2010, the year after he graduated from the Royal Academy of Arts, London, Same Blood, Not The Same Heart is an early example of this practice. ‘This title I stole from The Wire’, he explains. ‘Two characters are talking about an out-of-scene character and his father whom they both know. The father, now incarcerated, was a real streetwise badass and the son now desperately tries to become like him, even though it’s obvious to everyone (except his mum) that he isn’t and will never be. Trying to become something or someone you are not because of outside expectations or your own desire must be one of the most painful experiences most people have felt I think. The character in the painting is also placed in a kind of pictorial limbo; he almost disappears into the chaos of the surroundings. Or maybe he is dislocating himself from it. I like the scarcity of the painterly techniques: the black gesso, the drawing in cadmium red, and the yellow crayons. The title just made sense instinctively, so I haven’t really thought about it before. Maybe the painting, like the son, pretends to be something it isn’t or maybe it has realised its own strengths and abilities and found its own place.’ In 2010, Busk was included in the Saatchi Gallery’s exhibition Newspeak: British Art Now, and has subsequently mounted solo museum shows at the Holstebro Kunstmuseum, Germany and the Borås Konstmuseum, Sweden.