Studies of an imaginary place. In his paper-collages Andreas Johansson exposes his imaginary and nihilistic project and invites the spectator behind the constructed perspective of his landscape sceneries. On show seven large paper collages, made out of photography's he has taken of areas from his close environment.
In his paper-collages Andreas Johansson exposes his imaginary and nihilistic
project and invites the spectator behind the constructed perspective of his
landscape sceneries.
It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to our second solo show with
the Swedish artists Andreas Johansson. At the exhibition 'Studies of an
imaginary place' Andreas Johansson will be showing seven large paper
collages, made out of photography's he has taken of areas from his close
environment.
At first glance Andreas Johansson¹s 2-D paper-collages appears to be
photography¹s of deserted and demolished places, where al human civilization
seems to have left the dilapidated concrete- and iron-constructions to the
mercy of mother nature. Wild bushes and weed perforate the asphalt in front
of the towering almost roman-like concrete columns. The
graffiti-painters have long since decorated all vertical surfaces of the
ruins and a (very) clear blue sky lies on top of an ever-seductive horizon.
Although a closer inspection reveal that these landscapes on one hand
quite and on the other hand grand sceneries are meant to be just as
illusory, just as full of poetry and pent-up feelings, as the landscape
paintings of the Romanticism. Andreas Johansson's paper-collages are not
only a deconstruction of the real existing places in his environment. They
are also a re-construction of new imaginary places. A kind of 'non-places'.
Places that without a pre-existing history are left open to an almost
nihilistic kind of perspective.
In Johansson's sculptural paper-collages it becomes even more evident, that
landscape sceneries are always (more or less) a construction of the artists
mind and the spectators point of view. In his sculptural paper-collages his
illusory way of playing with surfaces and depths becomes evident in the
simplest way imaginable. The third dimension of the sculptural collages
reveals that only from one angle, and one angle only, are things perceived
in the right perspective. If the spectator takes one little step to the left
or right, the illusion is broken and the reality of the distorted
perspective becomes evident. In the sculptural collages Johansson exposes
his imaginary and nihilistic project and invites the spectator behind the
constructed perspective of his landscape sceneries.
Andreas Johansson (1977) live and work in Malmö, Sweden. He is a graduate
from the Art school Idun Lovén and The Art Academy in Malmö (2006). He has
previously been exhibiting at Kunstverine Hannover, I.A.S.P.I.S. in
Stockholm and the Photo Festival in Arles, France. He is also represented at
Malmö Art Museum and several other public institutions.
Opening Reception; Thursday, February 26th, from 5 8 p.m.
Bendixen Contemporary Art
Carl Jacobsen Vej 20 - Valby
Free admission