Jan Christensen
30 Jun - 31 Jul 2009
© Jan Christensen
They look at the photo for a second and glance around the room. They make a couple of steps to change their position and look at the photo again. They look at the line in the image and follow the line through the actual space before they look back at the photo. Then they step back and look around the the room properly. Some people might repeat this a couple of times. Then they turn around and move on. (#2), 2009
String and photo print Dimensions variable (sheet: 69 x 53 cm; string: 4,9 m), Unique
They look at the photo for a second and glance around the room. They make a couple of steps to change their position and look at the photo again. They look at the line in the image and follow the line through the actual space before they look back at the photo. Then they step back and look around the the room properly. Some people might repeat this a couple of times. Then they turn around and move on. (#2), 2009
String and photo print Dimensions variable (sheet: 69 x 53 cm; string: 4,9 m), Unique
JAN CHRISTENSEN
"Funky Mental Rabbit Hole"
Opening reception: June 30, 2009 8–10 pm
Exhibition duration: June 30–July 31, 2009
“The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland)”
Lewis Carroll’s rabbit hole with its endless expanse has always been a fictional structure. Its author, a tutor in mathematics, probably did not expect that his children’s book would one day inspire lay poets to create works about the current economic situation. Above all, Carroll’s text opens the door to a confused, surreal world where the rules of conventional reason have started to waver, and more than ever what is called for are new ideas and unusual solutions.
Jan Christensen has always been an engaged observer of creative practices, picking up on ideas and recycling artistic output, as his oeuvre is an on-going experimental project on what constitutes art. His work ranges from large installations and wall paintings, to works on canvas, sound installations, photography, video, light objects, and sculptures. The artist carefully traces the trends of our time, whether in art, general culture, the economy, or society. Such interests translate into exuberant works of appropriated material, found objects for installations, or graphics and photography for illustrations, designs and painterly compositions.
In this way, Christensen creates works that reflect their different contexts. Some pieces are produced specifically for certain spatial situations. They refer to discourses in art as well as to the larger field of creative practices, popular culture and the engagement of the viewer. The occasional use of text, from rhetorical puzzles to modest personal statements, show the use of humour as a means to draw attention to the context of art and the ways we perceive it.
Jan Christensen ́s current exhibition at c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner presents several new works, including wall paintings, photography, installation and an interactive sound installation.
Entitled “What could possibly be missing from an artwork with complex references, conceptual considerations and universal poetic impact? (#1)” is a condensed dust ball or so-called dust bunny. It is an attempt to discuss the factors that constitute a work of art, and the fact that rhetoric and references are integral components of the artwork by testing the paradox of conceptual validity with a minimum of execution.
The emphasis on the ‘idea’ is also reflected in “Thinking of Something Big, Making Something Important (#5)” found at the entrance of the gallery. Seeking meaning in the practice of art, the statement expressed in this large-scale wall painting hints to an artist's intentions in the search of the ultimate artwork, which unfortunately will most likely never be fulfilled.
Following such a conceptual game to the extreme, you will find by the high-spirited installation “Nothing is for Free Mother Fuckers”. It holds an arrangement of esoteric instruments against a painted backdrop of the title. The piece is a proposal for a band, and it is accessible and ready for the visitors to engage.
In-between these works hang a couple of photographs from a new series of site-specific works. They are images of the very same architecture of the gallery. Each photo is hung freely in the air by string stretching from one wall to another, with a single stitch through the paper. The string produces a line through both real space and the space captured in the photo. These series continue the artist's interest in producing unique art for individual architectural sites.
However different in execution, the works in this show bring the audience along on a spiralling trip into a place such as what Lewis Carroll hints to in his story. With the discourse of contemporary art as the obvious framework, we observe the artist pushing the limits of invention and what can be argued as intelligible and coherent with unusual solutions in search for those new ideas.
"Funky Mental Rabbit Hole" is the fifth solo exhibition of the Norwegian artist with c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner. Jan Christensen was born in 1977 in Copenhagen and studied art at the National College of Art and Design in Oslo. He lives and works in Berlin.
Christensen’s works have been shown at the Stenersenmuseet, Oslo, the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel and Artsonje Center, Seoul.
"Funky Mental Rabbit Hole"
Opening reception: June 30, 2009 8–10 pm
Exhibition duration: June 30–July 31, 2009
“The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland)”
Lewis Carroll’s rabbit hole with its endless expanse has always been a fictional structure. Its author, a tutor in mathematics, probably did not expect that his children’s book would one day inspire lay poets to create works about the current economic situation. Above all, Carroll’s text opens the door to a confused, surreal world where the rules of conventional reason have started to waver, and more than ever what is called for are new ideas and unusual solutions.
Jan Christensen has always been an engaged observer of creative practices, picking up on ideas and recycling artistic output, as his oeuvre is an on-going experimental project on what constitutes art. His work ranges from large installations and wall paintings, to works on canvas, sound installations, photography, video, light objects, and sculptures. The artist carefully traces the trends of our time, whether in art, general culture, the economy, or society. Such interests translate into exuberant works of appropriated material, found objects for installations, or graphics and photography for illustrations, designs and painterly compositions.
In this way, Christensen creates works that reflect their different contexts. Some pieces are produced specifically for certain spatial situations. They refer to discourses in art as well as to the larger field of creative practices, popular culture and the engagement of the viewer. The occasional use of text, from rhetorical puzzles to modest personal statements, show the use of humour as a means to draw attention to the context of art and the ways we perceive it.
Jan Christensen ́s current exhibition at c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner presents several new works, including wall paintings, photography, installation and an interactive sound installation.
Entitled “What could possibly be missing from an artwork with complex references, conceptual considerations and universal poetic impact? (#1)” is a condensed dust ball or so-called dust bunny. It is an attempt to discuss the factors that constitute a work of art, and the fact that rhetoric and references are integral components of the artwork by testing the paradox of conceptual validity with a minimum of execution.
The emphasis on the ‘idea’ is also reflected in “Thinking of Something Big, Making Something Important (#5)” found at the entrance of the gallery. Seeking meaning in the practice of art, the statement expressed in this large-scale wall painting hints to an artist's intentions in the search of the ultimate artwork, which unfortunately will most likely never be fulfilled.
Following such a conceptual game to the extreme, you will find by the high-spirited installation “Nothing is for Free Mother Fuckers”. It holds an arrangement of esoteric instruments against a painted backdrop of the title. The piece is a proposal for a band, and it is accessible and ready for the visitors to engage.
In-between these works hang a couple of photographs from a new series of site-specific works. They are images of the very same architecture of the gallery. Each photo is hung freely in the air by string stretching from one wall to another, with a single stitch through the paper. The string produces a line through both real space and the space captured in the photo. These series continue the artist's interest in producing unique art for individual architectural sites.
However different in execution, the works in this show bring the audience along on a spiralling trip into a place such as what Lewis Carroll hints to in his story. With the discourse of contemporary art as the obvious framework, we observe the artist pushing the limits of invention and what can be argued as intelligible and coherent with unusual solutions in search for those new ideas.
"Funky Mental Rabbit Hole" is the fifth solo exhibition of the Norwegian artist with c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner. Jan Christensen was born in 1977 in Copenhagen and studied art at the National College of Art and Design in Oslo. He lives and works in Berlin.
Christensen’s works have been shown at the Stenersenmuseet, Oslo, the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel and Artsonje Center, Seoul.