De Covidpandemie

And then came the epidemic. COVID-19 spread rapidly. Suddenly, we were living in a different reality, one of quarantine, lockdown, isolation, face masks, at-risk groups, distancing ourselves two meters apart, testing, getting vaccinated (or being antivax), distance learning, working remotely, visiting bans and sitting alone on a bench in the park…

Jan describes how he experienced the COVID period and also how current tensions in the world unsettle him. In so doing, he gives us clues that help us better understand his most recent works:

2020

Monument for the Forgotten, 2008

Monument for the Forgotten, 2008

“The Covid pandemic thwarted all possibilities for exhibiting work and – worse still – for a long time prevented contact with fellow artists and friends. I suffered from having fewer opportunities in any aspect of finding inspiration from the outside world. That static period failed to generate in me any sense of “oh well, the pressure’s off for a bit, no social engagements, now I can concentrate on myself”, as was indeed the case for many people. On the contrary – help! – I had already been focussing more than enough on myself without any Covid restrictions!
The sheer necessity of being deprived of human contact, the ‘masks’, the unsettling coverage and the life of a recluse affected my dynamism for observation, drawings and gathering material. Nothing was spontaneous and free-spirited any more. It took a long while before I was able to liberate myself from these depressive feelings and this passivity.
Meanwhile, I was faced with growing older. I had a strong sense that the pandemic was gobbling up years of my life and the little time I still had left. This resulted in a deep personal crisis.”

2023

“Following the Covid crisis, the outside world once again began to yield up great and rewarding contacts and impressions. Yet, at the same time, like a blast of wind through an open window, I was feeling the force of the many burgeoning tensions on the world stage. That experience left me with a sense of foreboding. Death and destruction on all sides.”

Art, however, provides comfort and a way out, and it has the final say.

2024

Jan often brings intense memories to life in his work. He lifts a corner of the veil:

“For some time now in my work, I will on occasion fall back on the many impressions instilled in me during my long journey through the Far East in the mid-1970s. The temples in India and Bali, the pagodas in Malaysia, the Golden Temple of the Sikhs in Amritsar, the symmetrical decoration, the floral motifs and figures of deities. Memories of the art that I saw there are once more creating a new source of inspiration.”