Johannesma investigates the physical world on deep, almost molecular level. As a visual thinker he unravels with an aesthetic, dramatic and authoritative look precisely capturing the complexity of the image. News photos from the media often inspire his work. In addition, Johannesma examines the symbolic potential of images and the way this potential relates to historical and artistic spheres. He developed a complex methodology starting from news photos, analyzing photographic icons and tropes, creating a new image as if it was a revisiting or double-take. Images that surround us in society are often influenced by a large number of images found in the media. Johannesma transforms our understanding with his alternate image banks the role of repetition, accumulation and framing in the making and breaking of worldviews. This results in a sensation of color, texture and tactility, an incentive to take a good look and to (re)think images presented to us by outside sources. As the second artist-in-residence last year invited by Van Eyck Mirror, the project bureau of the Van Eyck, Johannesma relates physically, but also thematically closely to the artists of Van Eyck with his work.

Long ting’ (No long ting’)* has evolved out of an on-going dialog between artists Cedar Lewisohn and Niek Hendrix relating to image appropriation within an art historical context. At what exact point does an appropriated image become that of the appropriator? This was previously a standard post-modern debate, often focusing on the political consequences of “images” being given new context. How has the advent of digital technology and communication affected this discussion? Viral images can now be made and viewed by millions of people around the world within minutes. The authors of such memes are often left anonymous as the image is repeatedly reposted. Where does all of this leave painters and image makers working today? Is the slow, considered nature of their practice merely a relic of a quaint, by gone age? Or should we be more optimistic about the possibilities of analog production in the meta-modern age? The artist will explore these questions and conundrums not only with artworks but also a series of new fictitious texts written by curator Huib Haye van der Werf. The idea of the texts is to inspire an alternative set of parameters though which the individual works and the show as whole can be seen. The artists in the exhibition all share similar concerns of authorship, historic and contemporary, but the selection also includes works with do not sit so smoothly into this narrative. The idea here is to disrupt a simple linear or conceptual understanding of the presentation, by either including work associated with a different generations (David Salle), or work with takes the notion of appropriation into the realm of corporate infiltration, using mediums such as performance and video (Kym Ward).

*Long ting: A phrase used to describe something that: a) Takes a long time b) Is tedious or stressful c) Doesn’t interest you. Originates from London.
No long ting: A phrase used to say that everything will be fine. Originates from London.

Text based on works of the Jan van Eyck artists-in-residence by Huib Haye van der Werf, go to NEWS: https://www.ronmandos.nl/news