Janna van Hasselt - Weighing In

As a travelling artist, ‘Weighing In’ has become an activity Janna van Hasselt dreads. She recounts the anxiety brought on by handing over bags at the airport check-in counter, placing packaged art works on the scales at the post office, or stepping onto the scales herself.

Van Hasselt’s work documents her travels and experiences, with constant references to place, routine and belonging. Made predominantly in Amsterdam, this body of work explores notions of habit and comfort and the artist’s attempts to piece together a sense of normalcy in a foreign environment. Through unusual applications of lithographic print techniques, photography, painting and sculpture, Janna van Hasselt examines and in a sense re-enacts the routines that sustain her while away from home.

Combining vibrant gestural marks and more ‘realistic’ figurative elements, van Hasselt makes no effort to distinguish between reality and representation, but prefers the jumble as a truer representation of her personal narratives and fixations. The resulting works are variously observational, whimsical, reflective of the human condition, and personal. Far from orthodox, their colour, energy and optimism represent a triumph over habit; a reflection of the artist’s sharp wit and sense of humour.

Event listed by Seed23

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