When emptiness holds meaning -
an introduction to the art of Janine Magelssen
Janicke Iversen, Art historian, 2006
In the plays of the Norwegian dramatist Jon Fosse, it is in the pauses
between dialogues and the empty gaps and intervals that the real meaning
of the text lies hidden. In other words, what is left unsaid is often
more important than what is said. In Janine Magelssen's works we find
a similar interest for what lies "between the lines"; the
layer between the concrete and the abstract where the perception of
art is less dependent on a clear-cut understanding than on intuition
and sensuousness.
ZONE
Catalogue text by Henning L. Mortensen to
the exhibition Zone in Gallery Semmingsen, Oslo, 2008
Janine Magelssen's objects convey a physical experience, in the same
way that sounds, water and wind affect our senses. Our body knows it,
but words cannot quite describe what we are feeling. Her works are about
this perceived state of being. You breathe, they breathe; a physical
presence. The German painter Gerhard Richter said that abstract art
visualises a reality that we cannot see or describe, but which we nevertheless
know exists.
NORE...
white noise at Kunstbanken, Hedmark Kunstnersenter, Hamar 19.01 –
20.02.2007
Camilla Eeg, Writer and curator
The wall objects created by Janine Magelssen (which are white objects
against a white wall) are situated on the border between being form
and not form, or between being visible and invisible. Her objects radiate
a sensuality and tenderness, which makes me as a viewer want to touch
the soft surfaces and sink into them.
Magelssen’s objects are white forms and surfaces that seem to
protrude out from the wall, almost like ghosts. The images have linear
printed patterns on the surface as if something has been lying on them
for a long time creating traces of former presence. In this way, these
pieces exist in a field of tension between the material and the ephemeral,
between what is and what has been. The wall objects have a strong presence
without asking for attention. Silently they are simply there, present
in space, bearing witness of something that may have happened.
