Jens Einhorn. Tracing Remains

About

→ [CONCEPT.] ←
Surrounded by remnants of what came before. How to hold on to what has already passed, or to remember how it left? A shifting landscape, no longer what it once was. A system turned upside down. Echoes of past actions remain. Impressions, notions of what used to be. Tracking, constantly, back and forth, revealing each step, congealing. Following motion, disorientation grows: directions entwine, twist to entanglement. This comes and goes; that falls. Imprints. Random beauty emerges from what’s left behind. Unpredictable imperfection. Everything melds together, yet structure endures and the elements persist. Chance allows for different outcomes and through chance comes what is.

→ [ABSTRACTION OF CONTENT.] ←
Forms, lines and threads merge. The canvas, resembling concrete, becomes a minimal urban background for organic, animalistic, serpentine shapes. A plant in the wind or even unidentifiable matter. No matter at all. Vestiges of wind, sand, the sea, the sky, the sun. Traces of gestural actions gather to build up 3-D images layered on a 2-D plane, peeking through what resembles dirt or dust. Sinuous sediments collide with flowing sentiments and lithe lines to come together in a single painting.

→ [PROCESS, REVEALED.] ←
Additive and reductive at once, Einhorn’s paintings begin with a primed, un-stretched canvas on the floor. In a highly active process, Einhorn coats car tires with paint and moves the rubber masses across the canvas in an act the artist likens to drawing or sketching. Once the paint has dried, he stretches the canvas and then places it back on the floor. Threads or strips of fabric – made in an earlier process of painting the fabric and ripping it into pieces – are layered with a coat of glue on top followed by a mesh structure. This is like a collage, but Einhorn thinks of it as a painting. He uses boiling water to break the glue’s seal and tear off the mesh, causing variable results as the materials loosen and fuse together, revealing the canvas underneath, forming air bubbles or distorting colors. Additional layers may include acrylic spray paint applied with the nozzle at less than full pressure, resulting in pixelated or blotchy lines. These processes of simultaneously layering and stripping away remain apparent in each unique piece.

→ [FORMAL ELEMENTS.] ←
Tracing Remains marks the first time Einhorn has employed canvases with a horizontal format, as well as the debut of his use of tires. The smaller, vertical format works represent parts of the process seen in the larger works, isolating threads, fabrics, tire tracks or mesh to encapsulate a particular technique. Color reappears throughout, at times faded and occasionally vibrant.

→ [BACKGROUND.] ←
Einhorn began his art practice with photography, and then went on to study sculpture and reliefs before arriving at painting. Incorporating his early studies of photography, the works in Tracing Remains are produced much like the process of developing a photograph, with studio as dark room and finished canvas as developed image. There is also a strong sculptural influence that emerges through multi-dimensional and textural elements. Previous works have made use of materials like mesh, fabric, PVC, sand, metal, rust, rope, found objects, chains, cardboard and plastic foil.

Text by Anita Lannacchione