Jan-Erik Andersson (b. 1954) has, during his forty-year career, been calling into question the rules of society and art with his surprising and narrative works. The artist’s multifaceted production includes both performances, spatial art, video, photo and sound works, sculpture as well as architecture. At the Ostrobothnian Museum, we can see a varied display of all this.
Andersson’s characteristic visual language includes primary colours, forms at play, as well as different kinds of ornaments. The works tell stories, either personal or stemming from the narrative tradition. Often, an apparently playful and easily digested idea conceals a profound thought sinking its teeth into society and humanity.
In Andersson’s art, the line between society and art seems to disappear. His most renowned work is the total artwork Life on a Leaf, a house the artist has built for his family calling into question the dominating ideals of modern housing. Since it was finished in 2009, the work has attracted attention both in Finland and internationally. Life on a Leaf, like many of Andersson’s other works, reflects on art’s possibilities of influencing our daily life, and seeks for a space in the world that’s convenient and significant to people. This is also apparent in Andersson’s numerous public artworks.
The exhibition organized at the Ostrobothnian Museum is the artist’s first broad private exhibition in Ostrobothnia. Presenting this artist who has gained a reputation both nationally and internationally is important both regionally and in a wider context. This broad museum exhibition makes it possible to show Andersson’s production in its whole characteristic multifacetedness.
