JOHAN GUSTAVSSON HOUDT VAN GEBROKEN KOFFIEKOPJES DIE KRINGEN ACHTERLATEN

Johan Gustavsson is een kunstenaar uit Zweden. Hij heeft deze werkjes gemaakt zodat jij je erover kunt verwonderen. Johan is zelf gefascineerd door 'het lelijke', omdat pas dan dingen uniek worden. Om lelijkheid hangt een soort naïviteit heen die heel menselijk voelt, vindt de kunstenaar. Haha. Zeg dat maar tegen je moeder als ze haar eerste vaas laat zien die ze op de pottenbakcursus heeft gemaakt. Maar lees vooral wat Johan Gustavsson zelf vertelt, om je staat van verwarring nog enigszins in banen te leiden. De man doet het erom.

I was born in Stockholm in 1978. I studied at art-schools: one year in Sweden and one year in Finland. After that I came to Den Haag to study at KABK. I graduated from the 3D department in 2004. I believe in art as a language used to communicate on an other level than text and spoken language. If art is a language, it needs to profit from its own qualities and avoid the known logical communication methods. I want to communicate with the audience in a different way than through rational, logical or traditional methods. I prefer a physical communication that speaks to your stomach, rather than a rational thought. Aware or unaware, we see, feel, sense, hear or smell an incredibly big amount of information all the time.

Ugliness is an important factor in my work. As Tom Sandqvist wrote: one can define the beautiful object as an object, which shows a correct correlation between its inner and external being. Take the example of a dirty coffee cup of which the handle is broken, compared to an unbroken, clean cup. Since the broken and dirty cup is polluting its surroundings, it claims a bigger space, it pushes us to see it. The inner being of the cup, or its energy, is larger than its external being. At the same time, the unbroken, clean cup remains its natural and suitable size.

www.johangustavsson.nl