Contemporary Belgian artist, Ann Veronica Janssens, works primarily in light, with her practice exploring its impact on our perception and experience. Over a period of 40 years, Janssens has produced an extensive body of work including installations, projections, immersive environments and sculptures.
Her latest exhibition, Ann Veronica Janssens: Hot Pink Turquoise, has been open to the public at the South London Gallery from late September until Jan 3, 2021.
The exhibition is a first for Janssens’ work to be presented on a large scale in London. Her selection of artwork spans the Main Gallery and three floors of the Fire Station, with the idea of making sculptures from emptiness.
For the first half of the show, iridescent hues of baby blue and pink glitter, Untitled (Blue Glitter), 2015, were scattered across the Main Gallery floor in a disorderly yet fragile fashion, before being swiftly swept away and replaced with the installation Bikes, 2001; visitors are enticed to cycle round the space on chrome coated, custom-made bicycles, whereby the mirrored wheels reflect light across the sparse gallery walls and floor.
Janssens’ work in the Fire Station highlights her playfulness of light, transparency and perception using the simple structural forms of circles, cubes, and rectangular sheets. The Bridget Riley Gallery showcases Blue Glass Roll, 2019, which appears to be a perfectly shaped airy blue structure rather than a heavy, transparent glass roll, due to the density.
Look through Le bain de lumière, 1995, in Gallery 2, bringing the outside world in via four water-filled spherical vases stacked on the window sill. This is accompanied with differing materials of IPE, 2009-10, a raw steel beam with one polished mirrored surface, underlining Janssens’ fascination with architecture.
The further up you travel in the Victorian building, the more colour is introduced. There’s a magical moment of discovery upon every floor. Gallery 3 showcases three fine sheets of annealed glass with vertical ribs and PVC filters. Installed in a low-ceilinged room, there’s an eerie sense of intimacy as you walk from one side of the room to the other. The irony is that although the sheets are quite static, the art is in a constant state of flux, stimulating the eyes, body and consciousness as the changeable colours slowly shift and shimmer.
Last but not least is the star of the show, Hot Pink Turquoise, 2006, in Gallery 4. In a dimly lit room, two tiny watt halogen lamps blare out dichroic colour filters of bright cyan and magenta with hints of cobalt, green and yellow. Similar to the work of James Turrell, Janssens’ aim is to push the boundaries of perception and harness the act of seeing. Viewing her work is a wonderfully beautiful sensory and bodily experience; the trickery of optical illusions invites unselfconscious joy and uplifting pleasure.
Janssens creates work through several forms of media. She utilizes the tools of light, colour and material, and, in turn, the observer questions their reality. The beauty of her work is that perception is in the eye of the beholder, prompting the viewer that anything is possible. This exhibition is a great reflection of the movement and transitory period that society’s currently experiencing; it’s a reminder that everything is temporary.
Going forward, it’s important to instil Janssens’ ideas of heightening self-awareness, consciousness and remaining active in both body and mind.
