FRANS JACOBI
The Current Situation
A choir. In the tradition of the antique Greek theatre. The choir would pop up in various situations and comment on whatever is going on. By singing, by shouting, by whispering, by talking. A commentary.
Can these drawings be a choir?
Works on paper by Frans Jacobi, A4 (watercolor, pencil, AI-realism, etc), 2022 -> ongoing
#extremeweatherstation
This series of drawings is a reaction to the climate summit COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan in November 2024. They reflect an ongoing concern with climate politics and the extreme weather conditions it produces. How to reflect all this in art? I am at the moment working on a larger body of art-works, trying relate to this kind of questions; in film, installation and performance. And in these small scale drawings. These are just fast reactions to a chaotic and very unfocussed political event. Who will manage to take responsibility? And what would that mean….
On the back of each of the first 'green drawings' is a copy of an article from The Guardian about COP29. The sentences on the rest of the drawings are excerpts from these articles.
1721
- 1757
I did this small series of watercolors on the morning of my opening at Knipsu, November 24th, 2023, because I felt my part of the exhibition needed a reference to the ongoing horrors in Gaza. It is now 5 months ago, 30.3.24 and the horrors are continuing. Todays deathtoll is 32.705 persons killed in Gaza.
1661
- 1672
8
+ 14 - 16 + 19 - 25
The ignorant schoolmaster?
In October 2022 some students at the Art Academy / KMD in Bergen made a large scale text protest against the use of the entrance space of the KMD-building for an exhibition that was part of the Bergen Assembly 2022. With the title The Professor, the exhibition presented 3 series of artworks dealing with the relationship between art-school students and teachers.
I used these drawings to contemplate the protest, reflecting on the quite intricate relationship between various positions of power.
As head of the Art Academy, I had myself been instrumental in organizing The Professor and I felt adressed quite directly by the student protest. Somehow, this small series of drawings helped me gain a more nuanced understanding of the situation.
1 - 6
+ 9
‘drawings’
The Current Situation is a series of ‘drawings’ begun in October 2022 as an ongoing project. The drawings are made in in-between-moments, like a kind of diary; small spontaneous reflections on the mundane daily happenings, news, subtracts from reading, quotes from other artists, political comments and whatever comes to mind.
They are made in a variety of media; watercolor, drawing, collage, text, photo and AI-generated images. Each drawing is A4 and numbered.
Number one was made on October 6th, 2022 and on June 12th 2023 the number 1639 was reached. It is important to note that the numbers does NOT correspond to the actual number of drawings. Inspired by a work of the artist Jonathan Borofsky, the numbers create an internal progression, inside the universe of the images.
