Ann Veronica Janssens

10 Nov 2018 - 31 Mar 2019
work in collection

Light, color and space are the fundamental materials used by Ann Veronica Janssens (1956). With these intangible phenomena she creates ‘sculptures’ that make the invisible visible. Architecture is, by nature, static; whereas light and color remain changeable. That is what Janssens investigates while, throughout the process, she experiments and sets people and things in motion.

In developing her ideas, the artist has a preference for uncomplicated geometric forms. An aquarium, for instance, filled with water, paraffin and alcohol. Due to the reflection and refraction of light, surfaces of color visually interact with the fluids in a refined manner. And as the viewer walks around it, new ‘images’ continue to arise and then vanish, as ephemerally as a rainbow, in the blink of an eye. Five of these ‘aquaria’ have been placed alongside each other in the exhibition. A surprising number of variations in form and color proves to be possible, just as in the paintings of Mondrian, where endless variations of horizontal and vertical lines and primary colors were carried out. But with Janssens the changes take place in a single artwork, before the viewer’s very eyes and in three dimensions.

With her interventions Ann Veronica Janssens turns the museum’s ‘white cube’ into an indefinable space filled with colorful mist. Despite the presence of light, we need to grope to find our way. The disorientation makes us wonder: just how big is this place? And – am I alone? Gradually the limits of the space become discernible, and people begin to loom forth in it. The artist challenges us and puts our senses to the test. What are we actually seeing and experiencing here?

Watch here the video in which Ann Veronica Janssens tells about her work and her exhibition at De Pont.
Watch here a short video about her work in the Danish Louisiana Museum.