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RE-paint ONE

With this series I am changing the title from RE-flower to RE-paint. From flower to paint. It does not mean that RE-flower is a closed chapter. RE-paint introduces paint. The prefix RE refers to the fact that I have been here before, but in contrast to my way of doing things the ‘90s when I was producing by re-painting and re-photographing my own works, I have no longer a source. I now refer to the act of painting as such. I have done it before, and I will do it again. Had I been able to do it long before, I would have done so.

The series was made in the late autumn, winter approaching rapidly, during the cold months with only little light. In one of the pictures I introduce the chamomile, one of very few plants you can find in a stubble field in December. The farmer has sprayed to a degree so that nothing can grow, except from the “chosen” crop. That is the whole idea of spraying. It is called monoculture. But then there was the chamomile defying the herbicide. Perhaps it hides genetically behind the chosen crop; perhaps it just happens to be tough. Who knows – in any case it is beautiful.

And now that I find myself writing I would like to mention something about networks and relations. I am no network artist and I guess that I do not wish to become one. I suffer easily from “art constipation”. But I like relations – and many of the kind. Without relations I would be lonelier than lonely. I realized that yesterday when we passed by our summerhouse in Udbyhøj by the Randers Fjord. Udbyhøj is far away, and we do not have any network there despite having owned the house since 2005. Yet we have relations: a mechanic in Holbæk J who repairs my car; (and) a badger that we have never seen. The badger uses our property when we are not around. We share the property, so to speak. We know that because it ploughs our lawn in the early autumn seeking larvae of the garden chafer. It was there recently, too. Yesterday we saw where it had – probably in vain – been excavating and digging at different locations.

Aarhus, December 2016
Jan Skovgård