Brain Freeze by Teddy Hansen

Mixed media on canvas.
2024

This painting is a part of Teddy Hansen’s FATHERLAND exhibition, which explores the question, “Maybe Danish people are happy because…?”

Maybe Danish people are happy because of their blue eyes?

This piece looks at how Danes got their piercing blue eyes. Maybe it was because they constantly had brain freeze from eating ice cream and swimming in icy water.

The leading man is stark naked, wearing ice skates, holding an ice cream and wearing an ice cream as a hat. In other words, he is doing everything a man can to create the perfect brain freeze. An ice cream truck blares its bright blue lights above him, containing a pair of bright blue eyes.

On the left is a large diving board with two nude people swan-diving into a hole in the ice in honour of Denmark’s national animal, the mute swan. Danish people are also very comfortable in their skin and tend to be content being naked in public. “Der er ingen ko pâ isen” is a Danish saying which translates to “there is no cow on the ice”, meaning there is nothing to worry about. The cow in the painting is one of the dairy cows used to make the man’s ice cream.

Let’s all eat an ice cream and have a cold swim.