JAN-OLE SCHIEMANN
卩ㄩ尺卩丨ㄥ
May 6 – July 2, 2022
Nino Mier Gallery is pleased to present 卩ㄩ尺卩丨ㄥ, an exhibition of drawings and paintings by Jan-Ole Schiemann. This is the artist’s fifth solo show with the gallery, and will be on view in Marfa, Texas from May 6 – July 2, 2022.
We’ve been here for a long time. Forever. There are no doors. No one enters, no one leaves. Still, new creatures are being discovered every day. New forms emerge in the fog. And each time you think you have met everyone, seen everything, finally know your way around, you come across a shape you’ve never seen before. A new fellow, saying “Hi, how are you? What is this place?” We don’t know. It’s easy to get lost.
We recognize no center, no landmarks, no sights. There’s no mayor or king or parliament. This place is full of stuff, but it does not contain anything. It has always been there, but it’s not eternal. There are no walls, but there are pathways of sorts: possibilities, decisions to be made.
We move around a lot. Making observations. Sometimes it’s all kind of hazy, but then, suddenly, you recognize a pair of eyes or maybe a face. We run into each other, and we impose what they call…structural continuity. We move around aimlessly, random fluctuations, Brownian motion, but then we collide and we form a constellation. A crystal emerges. The creation of a universe. Islands of order in the purple fog.
We run into each other. We talk, form a tribe, give each other names. Sometimes we stick together. We establish relationships. But it never lasts for long. Knots are untied. Networks break down. Things become unclear. Things we thought we knew for sure suddenly seem less than certain. Is this the leaf of a plant or the wing of an insect? A bull or a unicorn? A portal that promises escape or a black hole sucking up all meaning? Happiness or despair? Love or death? So much potential for change. So many possibilities. Transformations. Oscillations. Metamorphoses. When does a sphere turn into an eye? An inkblot into a pattern? Noise into a message?
We’re always in the middle. We generally don’t know what’s happening. We might take a step back and try to see the bigger picture and hey, sometimes it works: Everything has its place. It’s like watching a flower grow in real time. Nothing is happening, it’s imperceptible. But then there it is. Suddenly, like lightning. A flower. A fleeting moment of stability.
Then we return to the details. A petal, a translucent shimmer of blue on the wing of a bug, a yellow circle, sand-colored dunes, so many shapes and colors, so much life.
- Tobias Meyer