Those whom forgotten
from gods
A reading in easmanns painting
By: Faaiz Y. Alhamdani
/Iraq
Since the early renascence, figurative painting never
witness such cold act, as seen in jan figures. we can except
peter brugel in (ship of fools) but the figures of brugel
are drawn in their indifferent foolish act, while jan
figures who are waiting on edge of existence, in a comma of
feeling that they are devoted to some kind of role that has
been written by gods. They are waiting some of anonymous
fate. The sedateness of the gestures and hardness of their
expressions reflects their faith in that role they act like
chess soldiers waiting the gods hand to move them in the
suitable time.
Jan has created figures has no will or control on their
destiny, freezing in their standing positions, absent minded
in their hopeless sitting. The figures of jan remind us more
or less the mannerism style as they meet in the reflection
of despaired human existence.
It seems that easmann in the beginning of 21 century returns
again to give an impression that man who knocked the doors
of Mars and makes the world as small village, remains the
same man of the old ages, the prisoner of the gods
appetites. The gods which he created but in turn they plays
with his destiny after he lost control on his complicated
life style. which confirm this, is the environment and the
clothes which maintains the our feeling in the ancient
times. Its clear that the man in jan paintings is unable to
find a reason to justify his life and return to the point
that the man still live the disability to face the life. But
the man in jan easmann painting, as it appears, is not
concerned about the gods anger, that what makes him differs
than the man of ancient ages in addition to the fact that
jan figures are not concerned in life it self, which may
raise a question is Jan’s man is believer.
The observer of Jan’s works is sure of uselessness of this
role (which their figures are devoted to) and he doesn’t
understand the equivoque of this behavior. Besides that,
these figures are not only devoted to their disability, but
they do bizarre acts as in (four clones’ worshiping
volcano). These bending creatures in a position which remind
us the embryo, (the idea of waiting). Or as in case of the (
golden edge), as jan goes more far away with the girl
embedded in that corner so peacefully and playing by her
stick with some thing that the artist doesn’t show in a hint
to the uselessness of its act
Jan easmann is playing a
tricky game with us, which stimulate our consciousness. He
is trying to pull our thoughts to the area of the ceremony
of his figures and their environments (the meeting), so we
end up with the feeling of our disability to understand
their reality, as we are trying to make a sense from all of
this. By this way we will fall in the artist trap that is
dragging us to. Hence we will see our selves from a point of
view that we could not dare to look through it to see our
selves. He is utilizing our contradiction between our
feeling of uselessness of his figures against their
seriousness. He uses the open spaces in most of the times to
increase this feeling of contradiction.
Its clear that jan easmann is taking us slowly with
invisible floss, to realize our infertility and nonsense
behavior in front of the life facts as he see and wishes us
to see our selves in it.
