Riding in Dreams
A horse and rider is moving through a forest of blue mist. The equipage is framed by a small rectangle, brighter than the surrounding area. This places it outside of the rest of the picture, and strengthens the impression that we are looking into a dream. The whole picture is dominated by blue, but the woods are smoldering orange in the background. A beautiful sunrise, or are they fleeing from a fire?
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The combination of photo print and acrylic paint on canvas gives the picture a graffiti-like feel. The realistically portrayed tree trunks are cut off both in the top and bottom of the image, by painted ribbons of blue. The equipage, taken from Eadweard Muybridge’s photographic studies of motion, is printed with a standard stencil, and conveys little in the way of personality. Still, the horse and rider are the stars of the picture. But they are frozen, solidified. The movement we should have seen in an animal in motion is here transferred to the countryside.
In dreams we are often more aware of what is around us than of our own moves. Thus, it is natural to put ourselves in the position of the rider, and on horseback take in the rolling, fantastic surroundings that glide by as we stay still and observe.
Jannecke Lønne Christiansen (1955-) is a painter, and also works with video, photography and nature materials. She has had numerous public art commissions, and has also worked as an artistic consultant. Christiansen relates to a wide range of expressions, and often includes references to pop art and street art. She is concerned with experience and with the relationship between past and present, and wishes to explore different aspects of what we call reality in her art.
NORA SØRENSEN VAAGE