ARTIST STATEMENT

Text by Dr. Philipp Horst

Time and everyday life – these are the basic components of Jonas Hohnke’s work. This, at first, is not tangible and herein lies the quality of the approach. The two conceptual building blocks are represented, either physically or medially, in different ways by items which we all know and use. The materiality is not an attempt to upgrade the artistic idea. It is of minor, metaphorical importance. Charcoal sacks, towels, boards. A simple water level becomes a symbol of everyday life, providing a clear orientation for our life in its continuous presence and temporal linearity.

His works also deal with our subjective access to our everyday life – how do we perceive our environment. The object itself – the water level – is not shown directly, but (re-)presented in the form of an image, printed. The content-related, artistic meaning of his works lies both in the object itself, as well as in the context of its use. Both aspects load the seemingly trivial everyday item, semantically and aesthetically. The water levels are arranged evenly, the frames, however, pop out of the horizontal plane.

Jonas Hohnke tunes in to processes of everyday life and documents them in an artistic fashion. Raindrops fall onto a piece of paper and take on a colour. Through the collection and preservation of traces, the occurrences and processes of our present are conserved and made tangible in a different context. He hence uses the field of discourse of art in order to open up new perspectives – on a corner, on a wall, or even on raindrops. They spread out by themselves and therefore art considers them gestural, minimalistic, pictorial, abstract… whereas in everyday life they are only raindrops.

Hohnke’s art centres around the concept of readymades. The first readymades have, among other things, revealed how art is defined, and by whom. Hohnke’s intention is not so much to reveal hegemonic structures, which is of secondary importance; rather, he is a sensitive observer of the present and boils down his experiences to condensed images. He finds them in items we all know. In one installation, colourful towels hang on a wall. They are not ennobled by any bronze casting; everything man-made can successfully be used in a work of art, or be perceived as such. A towel has a visual and sculptural quality by itself. By lining them up, patterns and a space of astonishing intensity emerge.

But when is an item a work of art and originating from what kind of context can something become art? Object, recipient and context are constantly renegotiated in Hohnke’s work, his artistic strategy is as irritating as it is alluring. His works sensitise us to the poetics of everyday life.

Jonas Hohnke – Time and everyday life

BIOGRAPHY

2005 academy of fine arts muenster

2009 prof. guillaume bijl (master class)
2011 prof. ayse erkmen
2012 cité internationale des arts paris
2013 akademiebrief (diploma)
salzburg summeracademy
project residence new york
2013-2014 academy of fine arts vienna
prof. heimo zobernig
2014-2015 prof. ayse erkmen (master class)

selected exhibitions
2016
pestalozzi, exhibition project (with philipp roecker a.o.), wuppertal
c.a.r. contemporary art ruhr, media art fair, welterbe zollverein, essen
pact zollverein, atelier, experimental plattform for the arts, essen
2015
kahnweiler price-exhibition 2015, sculpture and installation,
museum pachen, rockenhausen
kunst im stadtbild wolfsburg – kis 2015, kunstverein crearte galerie zwischenraum, wolfsburg
wahlverwandtschaften, lehmbruck museum, duisburg
wild und sanft, sponsorship exhibition of wgz bank, duesseldorf
downtown boogie woogie, offspace, belm
have had done, exhibition-space of academie of fine arts duesseldorf, dusseldorf
rtfm (read the f*cking manual), kunsthalle muenster, muenster
tape it, european tape-art exhibition, heyne kunst fabrik, offenbach
2014
–rest–, stadtgalerie osnabrueck, osnabrueck
diamonds and pearls, galerie evelyn drewes, hamburg
just – episoden in der calwer passage, room g, stuttgart
attentionattention , speicher II, muenster
doppeltgemoppelt, kunstverein gelsenkirchen, gelsenkirchen
cluster.fm 96,0 mhz (with rené haustein), wewerka pavillon, muenster
2013
interaction, retour de paris no. 81 (with helmut dietz a.o.), institute français, stuttgart
kunst jetzt!, ida gerhardi price 2013, museum of arts luedenscheid, luedenscheid
new kids of the block, curated by rené block & ayse erkmen, tanas, berlin
sponsorship award exhibition, kunsthalle muenster, muenster
2012
i like this.., cité internationale des arts paris, paris
intervall, woga, wuppertal
update, winkelhausenkaserne, osnabrueck
2011
uitwisselingstentoonstelling, kask, gent
narration/sachlichkeit, kunstverein hebebuehne ev., wuppertal
hoehlenforscherprojekt (cave-scientist-project), performance-night, wuppertal
2010
sponsorship award exhibition, exhibition centre of contemporary arts, muenster
2009
was machen wir mit jonas, galerie rathaus, lippstadt
2008
liebe.freiheit.alles., kunsthaus essen, essen
2007
second to win, first to loose, wewerka pavillon, muenster

awards / scholarships
2012
artist in residence, cité internationale des arts paris,
scholarship oft the country of north-rhine westphalia

2013
artist in residence, salzburg summeracademy,
scholarship of academie of fine arts muenster

erasmus scholarship vienna,
academy of fine arts vienna

2014
creating a context
erasmus intensive programme, krakow

artist in residence,
stadtgalerie osnabrueck

2015
1. award winner, art in the city of wolfsburg, kis 2015

publications
2007 liebe.freiheit.alles., exhibition catalogue, kunsthaus essen
2008 was machen wir mit jonas, exhibition catalogue, galerie im rathaus lippstadt
2011 twisted rodeo, catalogue of artist class of prof. ayse erkmen
2012 update, exhibition catalogue, update osnabrueck (with artist groupe nartur)
2013 new kids of the block, exhibition catalogue, tanas
2013 kunst jetzt! exhibition catalogue, museum of arts luedenscheid
2014 interaction, exhibition catalogue, retour de paris 81, institute français
2014 doppeltgemoppelt, exhibition catalogue, kunstverein gelsenkirchen
2015 cluster.fm 96,0 mhz, exhibition catalogue, wewerka pavillon
2015 wild und sanft, exhibition catalogue of wgz bank duesseldorf
2015 wahlverwandschaften, exhibition catalogue of lehmbruck museum duisburg
2015 kis – 2015, exhibition catalogue, institute for city-planning and time-history, city of wolfsburg
2016 contemporary art ruhr, exhibition catalogue, c.a.r. essen

contact: hohnkejonas@gmail.com