KÜNSTLERHAUS

BETHANIEN

Künstler*innen

Jan Adriaans

Netherlands

Working with photography, installation and video, I try to establish a dialogue between different media and realities. My work investigates materials, objects and space in the wider context of the fetish as “an object created by man to gain power over the other”. The lining, or “skin”, of rooms, for instance, is invested with symbolic meaning and intentions: expensive, hard and glossy materials in office buildings are intended to impress the employees and encourage them to work harder, whereas soft and comfortable materials encourage users to slow down. The longing for decadence or a higher status is a recurrent element in my work. By making interventions in spaces I reveal their underlying intentions, as ever new illusory depths appear in the image through colour, gloss and texture. My work investigates spaces through the notions of appearance and reproduction. It is monumental and straightforward, but always full of illusions.

STAY
01.12.2011 – 31.03.2012