S T A T E M E N T
Ak Jansen’s work occupies queerness on both political and poetic terms, and honors queer community’s ethic of creative self-making. At the center of Jansen’s work is care and intimate relation; how they manifest, are compelled and sustained. What is the relation between a sculpture and a human, who is looked at and who’s looking, or might it be possible that they both do both things? His work is about the nature of bodies - in relation to each other but also to themselves; shifting, in flux, and at times against their own will - transforming. Clay, fiber, needle and thread are materials often found in his work. He brings attention to craft techniques that were often used out of a necessity - hand-building with clay to create bowls and vessels to eat out of. His process is deeply informed by the social histories of materials, and alternate applications - his work questions how techniques are applied and combined, and create their own languages. His work explores the elastic nature of queerness through the elastic nature of materials, techniques, and forms in active relation and transformation. His sculptures ask how different materials coexist or even morph into each other in the most harmonious ways - creating hybrid materials that communicate hybrid identities, bodies, worlds, futures.
B I O
Born in the Netherlands, based in Brooklyn - Ak Jansen’s sculptures, ceramics, soft sculptures, and sewn drawings occupy queerness on poetic and political terms, and honor queer community’s ethic of creative self-making. Care and intimate relation are at the center of Jansen’s works; how does care manifest between subjects and objects? How does care create subjectivity? How does an artwork it/themselves acquire perspective, life, and history? Recent exhibitions include a solo show, WE’RE HERE, at Ivy Brown Gallery; group shows at 601 Artspace, and South Etna, and collaborations with poet Ariana Reines, and Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir. He is a Wolff Ravenal Fellowship recipient, a graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven, and is currently teaching sculpture at Brooklyn College.