Hans Andersson’s world of images time does not appear as a speeding arrow but as an ocean in which all things merge into each other, present, past and future. Something past and distant takes place in the present. During one period he collected images of trappers and dead horses, like an arduous recalling. He uses the empty pages of the albums to make images in a mixed media technique of drawing, painting and collage. The cropped papers lack all pretention and he likes to paint with crayons and Tipp-ex. Being poor is part of the genealogy of the collage, as in the early cubism or the exercises at Bauhaus: you use what you have at hand in daily life, simple, poor materials: a kind of Arte Povera. Hans Andersson’s obsolete techniques give the image a naked, unavoidable presence without any kind of romantic nostalgia. It is as if everything in the image has a decisive meaning, each detail: a somewhat badly punched hole, the texture of the remains of an unevenly ripped-off glued photograph, the creases in the paper. (...)
From the very beginning, self-chosen poverty has offered itself as a path towards spiritual practices, in a more modest way than with the Christian ascetics in the desert. In the art of our times a movement like Arte Povera has, in names like Beuys, Burri and Paolini, reconnected to this tradition. Today, when the display windows overflow, the poor and obsolete expressions of a work of art position themselves in shocking contrast to the seductive commercial aesthetics and commodity fetishism that permeate contemporary culture: reclaiming the inner life from the excesses of the material world.
The creation of an image is also a creation of a world: an action, cosmic or microcosmic, takes shape in the structure of the image: a barely tangible perception or thought process in the outer or inner space. Takes shape – not something finished or fixed. Hans Andersson rather feels his way in a series of ephemeralities. To not betray the complexity… The precision in transience.
Peter Cornell, Hans Andersson, Edda publishing 2013
Angelika Knäpper Gallery presents Hans Andersson’s third exhibition with the gallery. In connection with the exhibition Edda publishes a book, with a foreword by Peter Cornell. During this spring Andersson will also show in Karlstad at Sandgrund.
Andersson (born 1979) graduated from Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafs and Design (Stockholm) in 2005. His works have been shown in a number of exhibitions both in Sweden and abroad.
From the very beginning, self-chosen poverty has offered itself as a path towards spiritual practices, in a more modest way than with the Christian ascetics in the desert. In the art of our times a movement like Arte Povera has, in names like Beuys, Burri and Paolini, reconnected to this tradition. Today, when the display windows overflow, the poor and obsolete expressions of a work of art position themselves in shocking contrast to the seductive commercial aesthetics and commodity fetishism that permeate contemporary culture: reclaiming the inner life from the excesses of the material world.
The creation of an image is also a creation of a world: an action, cosmic or microcosmic, takes shape in the structure of the image: a barely tangible perception or thought process in the outer or inner space. Takes shape – not something finished or fixed. Hans Andersson rather feels his way in a series of ephemeralities. To not betray the complexity… The precision in transience.
Peter Cornell, Hans Andersson, Edda publishing 2013
Angelika Knäpper Gallery presents Hans Andersson’s third exhibition with the gallery. In connection with the exhibition Edda publishes a book, with a foreword by Peter Cornell. During this spring Andersson will also show in Karlstad at Sandgrund.
Andersson (born 1979) graduated from Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafs and Design (Stockholm) in 2005. His works have been shown in a number of exhibitions both in Sweden and abroad.