Filip D Jensen: Gore, 2016
Our world is framed by our experience, framed by our humanity. We are the product of our physicality as a native creature of this planet, but we are also the product of our mental capacity, our understanding of connection between ourselves and the world around us, and more importantly, our connection with our self.
We are a unique phenomenon on this planet, we are a creature that is aware way beyond ourselves, We are expansive, imaginative, inquisitive, capable of complex tapestries of the mind, weaving worlds within worlds. Our minds are one of the great vessels of this planet, one of its greatest achievements.
Filip D Jensen: Honey, 2016
Filip D Jensen: Pornography, 2015
However, this mind, this otherworldly vessel is also one that can feed back into itself. It is a tool that can be used to process and produce unlimited amounts of sadness, pain, depression, longing. What can be expanded by the mind, can also be shrunk by the mind. Perspectives can be forever expanding horizons, or small contained boxes.
The mind is a vessel that has been a subject for artists since we have been able to think abstractly, which we have done since before we stood upright. There are many ways to interpret self, to interpret the non-physical, and the Swedish artist Filip D. Jensen has a fascinating way of projecting portraits of our human mental state.
Filip D Jensen: No Control, 2016
Filip D Jensen: Outside, 2016
Filip produces portraits that appear to focus on our physical selves. He produces compositions that contain individuals, couples, some interact, some stand alone, mute, many are deformed in one way or another, and all have little or no facial features. These are projections of self, inner self, they are extensions of our mind, of our capacity to live beyond ourselves, and in that respect, they are projections of tension, raw abstraction, and often painful deformity.
Deformity is in many ways an abstraction in its own right. It is a mask. When we see physical deformity, we see something not 'normal', something that sadly distorts or distracts us from seeing the individual as they truly are. We often fail to see beyond the deformity, and therefore the individual becomes a shade, a vagueness.
Filip D Jensen: Lazarus, 2016
Filip D Jensen: Overcome, 2015
Although Filip's work uses deformity as part of the ideal of abstraction of the mind, that deformity also shows some of the complexity of limitations of that same mind. in a clever and profound way Filip measures and documents some of the difficulties of our life journey, through the complexity of emotions and feelings that are such an integral part of who we are, and what makes us human.
Filip deals with subject titles such as: No Control, Outside, Pornography, Sour Times. These are subjects that are integral to who we are, integral to the flavour of humanity. We need them to be human, but we also need not to be dominated by them.
Filip D Jensen: Seated Figure With Monocle, 2015
Filip D Jensen: Deranged, 2016
We live our lives as a balancing act between expansion and regression of the mind. How we deal with both sides of that equation is one of the great continuing questions of self. That we need both in order to maintain a balance seems obvious, how we achieve that balance is up to the individual.
Filip is an artist that expresses much with both candour and honesty. We are rarely an open book, but Filip does indeed open the book of the human condition. It is a rare site, but a welcome one, and one that we need to take notice of, and one that we need to understand and connect with, Filip helps us to do that.
Filip D Jensen: Sour Times, 2016
All work is copyrighted to the artist. Please ask permission before sharing imagery. Thank you.
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