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I started painting the way I do today about 10 years ago at the HFBK state school of arts in Hamburg, Germany, in the art class of Professor Stanley Brown. After a short period of abstract painting, I came up with the little figures that I depict in my recent pictures, the little girl and her companions. They immediately took over my artwork and have never left since. At first, they were mostly angry—girls with wide, powerful eyes haunting the viewer, girls with big heads and small bodies, with nice haircuts and lipstick, but hopping mad. In the progress of my work, the world I created grew more complex. Monsters, pets and unicorns became the girls´ playmates, companions, collaborators—the unloved little brother or the guardian angel as a gate to another world. |
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Gunilla Jähnichen
I started painting the way I do today about 10 years ago at the HFBK state school of arts in Hamburg, Germany, in the art class of Professor Stanley Brown. After a short period of abstract painting, I came up with the little figures that I depict in my recent pictures, the little girl and her companions. They immediately took over my artwork and have never left since. At first, they were mostly angry—girls with wide, powerful eyes haunting the viewer, girls with big heads and small bodies, with nice haircuts and lipstick, but hopping mad. In the progress of my work, the world I created grew more complex. Monsters, pets and unicorns became the girls´ playmates, companions, collaborators—the unloved little brother or the guardian angel as a gate to another world.
For some time now, a little boy has appeared in my paintings, as if the girl had found her male counterpart. He is less cruel and sadder, looking from his side of the world, over to ours.
In my earlier paintings, my characters spent their time in more or less empty spaces. I put the focus on the relationship between the figures within the narrative level of my art.
Later on, I concentrated on the surroundings for my creatures. I created rooms, dark spaces, with even darker entry holes drawing the viewer deeper into the painting. But, there is always a gentle light giving even the darkest, most frightening place the wonderful aura of a calming home. It is always a contrast between fear and warm security.
In the progress of my work, I was looking for landscapes in which to put the figures. I found these landscapes in old masterpieces. I started to copy parts of these from the ones that fitted my requirements—in particular landscapes, architecture and interiors. Although they now have different outlooks, like a beautiful Renaissance landscape on fire or a H. Bosch bridge in peaceful silence, the viewer can still identify the origin.
The different characters and their interactions present the spectator with a complex and unique world. I have taken over familiar symbols like unicorns, apples, Zeppelins or guns, and have given them a slightly new connotation. The feeling grows because you get the feeling of looking at something familiar, yet strange.
This world is hermetic in itself, but at the same moment, it invites the viewer to step in, of course with mixed emotions.
Its intention is to evoke a certain feeling that is universal, but at the same time very personal.
