Transformations, transmutations

During the duo exhibition Transformations, Transmutations, Galerie Bart is presenting two artists, the Norwegian Eirik Jahnsen and the German Nomin Zezegmaa, who plunge into a world of material transformation, physical experience and personal history. Their work arises from alchemistic and transformative processes and ways of thinking. Although different as night and day outwardly, their work comes together perfectly on the common ground of viewer experience.

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All of the work by Eirik Jahnsen (Norway) that we are showing is made of stainless steel, and this is no coincidence. Eirik plays with the contrast between this robust industrial material and the intangible, formless light reflected within it. He transforms the steel to create unexpected shapes, colours and surfaces in his experiments, using fire, force and self-invented techniques. The refractions and reflections in these works are shown to best advantage when you move around them. In doing so, you often find yourself positioned within the work of art as if in a mirror, and you become part of it for a moment. All of this causes the works to transcend their physical shape and come to life in the play of light.

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The versatile Nomin Zezegmaa (Germany) combines a variety of disciplines with her complex relation to her Mongolian heritage. Her narrative work, in which she draws on research, memories, and histories, assumes a multiplicity of forms that are united by Nomin’s characteristic style. This combination of story-telling based on semiotics, language and Mongolian traditions and as such offers a vision through a shamanic gaze. The result is an organic and enigmatic whole, executed in a cool style in which cobalt blue predominates alongside black and white.

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Both Nomin’s and Eirik’s work is about transcending the material they work with. Eirik does this by using characteristics, shapes and sheens that he can give to his material. Nomin uses calligraphic symbolism to weave her culture with its history and future into her material. In combination, they make the viewer aware that there is more to art than the material aspect; there is also feeling.

Text by Merel de Kok