Jóhan Martin Christiansen

Jóhan Martin Christiansen is an installation artist who works with both found objects, plaster casts, and sewn-together, colored textiles. His works include materials such as cloth diapers and cardboard, which are among the elements he has repeatedly chosen to integrate into his work. Jóhan Martin Christiansen has a particular attraction to the dilapidated and seemingly worthless, and he has embraced the Arte Povera tradition of using waste materials. The found objects he uses provide him not only with information but also with vivid impressions of the street and its vibrant life.

He describes his work with plaster casts as a kind of graphic process. The casts function as afterimages of the landscape, bearing the tangible traces of the environment in which they were created. They can feature impressions of stones or remnants of dried grass clinging to the plaster, bearing witness to the presence of the landscape.

His style is sensual, tactile, and aesthetically conscious. Through body-related formats and materials, he explores the past encapsulated within them. He seeks to create simple yet profound connections between found objects, the landscape, and the human body.

This aesthetically conscious style also characterizes his work with traditional printmaking techniques. In his compositions, Jóhan Martin Christiansen takes the surrounding world as his starting point, where a random object forms the basis of the motif's construction. He then breaks down the subject of his representation, abandoning the original object of inspiration in favor of an abstract composition. The reference to the body is expressed through agitated and energetic lines and marks, as if he is attempting to transcend the two-dimensionality of the print medium and invade the viewer's reality.