JONNY NIESCHE

__About sound and vision?

The art of Jonny Niesche embodies the definition of “wonder”. It both meditates and marvels: meditating on the Modernist canon it peruses, on its own spirituality (à la Rothko) and commensurate focus; while being full of its own unique blend of awe and astonishment. It is a practice which blends consistency and an eagerness for developments, functioning together as a form of self-portraiture. Consistency being a gentle evolution akin to aging, while a fervour for progress is perhaps closer to the exterior of the person—changes in styles and personas. The soul is ever enduring while the façade moves and shifts.

This is a quality shared by the author of the song Niesche references in the title of his latest exhibition, David Bowie, a figure many called a chameleon, to a point it could be said that his chameleon-like exterior was his consistency. But this would miss the mark, as a chameleon’s trick is to blend into their surroundings, something Bowie was incapable of. Rather his consistency was exploration—of the new in all forms—and his trick was to make its quality consistent. As such, Bowie’s practice—that of the Pop Star—similarly could be summed up as a practice of ongoing self-portraiture, with its own form of continuation, connection points, and self-referential acts creating a feedback loop, positioned alongside injections of considered yet dramatic change.

Niesche indeed wonders about sound and vision—and thresholds and vibrations and energy and immersion and adornment. His work in many ways functions as the Pop Star on a stage. As another of his heroes, Otto Piene, noted there is an energy of light emanating from the field of a painting. The light Niesche’s painting projects are similar—though, perhaps more abstract—energy to the Pop Star on stage. A radiating, vibrating energy drawing in the viewers adornment, providing total immersion. This concentration on energy is drawn from the physical characteristics of his work: vivid colours, reflective surfaces, optical illusions, scale and installation, causing differing sensations in the viewer. Each affording a state of immersion, be it the feeling of entering a void or threshold, encountering yourself in distorted reflections, or drifting mentally due to the overwhelming atmosphere of the work. Here is where the emanating energy nearly drains the viewer of theirs: they surrender and lose themselves in the work—akin to a musical performance perhaps, dissolving in front of the work (stage) and becoming part of it.

Sound and Vision is an exhibition presenting a group of these abstract self-portraits, each with their own form of consistency—connections to one another and those that came before—along with leaps into uncharted territory. Each work both creates and projects its own energy—again one that is both connected and distinct—and each desire consumption, like the Pop Star, they need an audience to perform in-front of.

Featuring sound design by Mark Pritchard