Exhibition catalog: Discourse of War

DEAN JENSEN
Johannesburg, South Africa
@jensencrunch
About artwork
This work, very simply aims to capture how cheap young lives become, during war. Besides
the physical lives lost in combat, the lost potential of young lives who survive war
is devastating.
Про роботу
Ця робота має на меті показати простим шляхом, наскільки дешевими стають
молоді життя під час війни. Крім фізичних життів, втрачених у боях, втрачений
потенціал молодих життів, які пережили війну, є руйнівним.
I have known the shape of Depression from a young age. The ‘Mockingbird’ body of
work, from which the submitted work is extracted, examines the relationship we all
have with mental health and our own subjective childhood mirages.
The primary device I employ, is the constant, presence. I recognise it in others. People
carry a presence with them. Sometimes comfortably familiar enough.
The second device I utilise in my practice, is that of anonymous children.
They symbolise a purer, ideal self, or a moment in childhood. They are frames I re-visit
often, serving as spaces of calibration. Like navigation posts in the past.
The third device is the found substrates of 1950’s sheet music. In them I continually find
a use of language, that when observed through a different context, the language takes
on a sinister irony.
I let chance play a role, as a final device. I create the images in sketch form and then
randomly pick the found pages from the music books - then execute. It is in this combination
of moments that some of the pieces reveal a layer beyond the face value of the
medium, to evoke a resonance.
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