Ann Veronica Janssens at Axel Vervoordt Gallery

At Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Ann Veronica Janssens will show five sculptures, each with its own play of colour and light subtly offering a different phenomenological experience.

Janssens‘s Magic Mirror diffracts the light and projects colour into space. Though the mirror’s main tonality is pink, it is in fact colourless. Seeing colour becomes an active process and only when the viewer experiences the work different colours appear.
The three golden geometrical shapes are the exhibition space’s punctuation. They give rhythm to it. Janssens drenches pure forms – one circle and two squares – in a gold bath in order for them to capture and reflect light on a brilliant surface. Looking at their surface, the viewer sees blurred shapes and colours in which he can try to recognize himself. Gold is nature’s ultimate brilliance and its use in art carries a long historical tradition. Not only was it used to express economic value, it also often referred to untouchable space.
The fifth work in the exhibition is a two meter long beam of massive glass entirely coloured in black. The fragile quality of the glass, combined with the solidness of the bar and the density of the black gives this work an almost unworldly presence. The black glass absorbs light, yet seems to radiate from within. One might even image it to be the solidification of liquid oil that will start to flow again once it is touched.

The work of Ann Veronica Janssens unbalances perceptive experience. By means of colour and light the artist activates space. The viewer’s gaze is triggered. Looking at her work means being a part of it. Janssens isolates sensory experiences. She fragments them, reduces them to their most essential aspects and transforms these into abstract shapes, ephemeral materials, in a play with colour and light. The viewer is thus invited to become more aware of how he perceives space and what can be the impact of the slightest sensual stimulus.