JP-Tokyo-02-03-04, C-print, 95 x 75 cm, edition of 3
Peter Lav PHOTO GALLERY Carl Jacobsens Vej 16, entrance 6, floor 3 2500 Valby Danemark
With his exhibition, Saimaa, Adam Jeppesen presents new photographs as well as the video installation One - Video for 3 Screens. Jeppesen's photo book Wake (Steidl Publishing) is also shown at the exhibition for the first time. All of his works are based on takings from journeys to various countries during the last seven years and, together as a whole, they can be seen as a poetic depiction of the world and of life in their many aspects.
The exhibition sucks us into a photographic universe, in which there is no concrete, common history or concept knitting together the individual pieces of work. Instead, a fragmented look at our world, where ordinary places, spaces and situations appear unfamiliar and mysteriously inciting is created--as if there were more at stake than meets the eye.
The photographs are characterized by a dwelling on the little details and incidents that, on the face of it, do not contain a grand epic. In Jeppesen's universe, though, apparently insignificant motifs are transformed into atmospherical tableaux pregnant with meaning, where indefinable histories rummage. As such, the pictures are utmost silent and puzzling, since the narratives are almost non-existent. Nevertheless, the photographs necessitate that the viewer spend time on them in that dramatic events "haunt" the works, forcing their way into the consciousness of the viewer; events establishing themselves and becoming visible in the pictures through Jeppesen's photographic eye and work with light and colour, for example.
In the video installation One - Video for 3 Screens, constituting the first part of an unfinished series, Jeppesen takes a new and different glance at the world, which shows itself in an almost unrecognizable light. Through three screens the artist creates a view of a barren and empty landscape as if viewing an(other) uninhabited planet on which the only life seems to be the water's incessant fall from the sky as drops, snow or roaring waterfalls. The unending current of water at different speeds and the changing pictures of the installation combined with the slow rhythms of the music, create a synchronous and hypnotizing influx of impression captivatingly depicting the way of the world as beautiful, abstract pictures. At the same time, Jeppesen's work stands out as a testimony of the unending course of nature independent of man's presence.
Jeppesen's works thus present a mysterious and personal gaze at our surroundings, in which the world appears as true and matter-of-factly by means of the photographic medium's ability to record, but also, to a large extent, as unreal pictorial spaces, in which everything appears embellished, dramatized and, not least, fascinating.
Adam Jeppesen (1978) has a number of exhibitions behind him, both in Denmark and abroad. The Danish and Swedish arts foundations have recently bought works by the artist, who has participated in group exhibitions, such as New Danish Photography at Scandinavia House, New York, and in Scandinavian Photography II at Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell. He has also exhibited at the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, USA. Furthermore, works by Adam Jeppesen will be presented at the photography fair, Paris Photo 2008.