Jonas Dehnen

The fading but constantly recycled emblems of communities and their constructed visual identities serve as raw material. These cultural signifiers become degraded, fragmented and transfigured by simple gestures, slashes, splashes, scratches, scrapes, rubbing and scrubbing, on paper and canvas. Objects, figures and characters emerge. They sprout hands, feet, limbs, boughs, branches, and put down roots. They combine into a dancing, marching, stamping, thrusting, and shuffling gang. They don’t deny their implicit violence, and vainly hope to perhaps attain a naive candour and lightness.

The fading but constantly recycled emblems of communities and their constructed visual identities serve as raw material. These cultural signifiers become degraded, fragmented and transfigured by simple gestures, slashes, splashes, scratches, scrapes, rubbing and scrubbing, on paper and canvas. Objects, figures and characters emerge. They sprout hands, feet, limbs, boughs, branches, and put down roots. They combine into a dancing, marching, stamping, thrusting, and shuffling gang. They don’t deny their implicit violence, and vainly hope to perhaps attain a naive candour and lightness.