Jan S. Hansen (DK)
LE MIRAGE: Into Our Altered States
November 27, 2010 – January 7, 2011
In the exhibition Le Mirage: Into Our Altered States, Jan S. Hansen (1980, DK) investigates four themes and the intersections between them: death, dreams, drugs, and God. The show spans various media and genres from painting and ceramics to photography, neon and installation and to collage and poetry. The artist thinks of all four topics as both eye openers and blind alleys in our world:
“The four themes – death, dreams, drugs, and God – can be seen as both crutches and running shoes in an mind dazzling chaos. The title speaks about the various states people seek in order to experience and understand their own existence; however, due to our blurred knowledge and insight into ourselves and the universe, these states appear as mirages or illusions. Our limited intelligence means that we cannot decipher and understand the underlying primordial force that permeates everything. The patterns of nature and the deepest buzz, that stretches from the smallest atom to beyond our comprehension, is the biggest flip for little fools like us. Human beings are only one step ahead of the animals. Our intelligence is just a tiny bit more advanced than theirs. The journey inwards may cause discomfort so focus is directed outwards, towards the superficial and impossible demands for success ruling in a fast modern world where perfectionism is a keyhole without a key.
God has stepped down for the Ego and death is gloating over our uncertainty about the end of life. Dreams open backdoors to new insights on a both individual and collective level. Drugs activate receptors in the brain so the basic structure is viewed from other angles, but drugs can also be pure escapism and thralldom.
Dreams open doors and close doors. God opens doors and closes doors. Drugs open doors and close doors. Life opens the door and death closes it. These considerations are manifest in the works alongside observations of this and that from everyday life.”
Jan S. Hansen’s art draws on all sorts of media and ideas. His work is a motley multitude of different things and thoughts, which he steals, recycles and makes up. Filtered through Jan S. Hansen’s flavor, even the most irreconcilable opposites seem a natural extension of one another. What ties it all together is a complex and idiotic humor of a speculative nature.
Toke Lykkeberg
IMO
Ny Carlsberg Vej 68 OG
DK-1760 Copenhagen
+ 45 3048 7324
