TORCH
Gallery proudly presents Clouddwellers, an exhibition of recent
paintings and drawings by Anya Janssen. These works are a celebration
of the beauty that can be found in the temporary nature of existence.
Janssen has made a series of intimate portraits of her students, a
group of young adults who, in her eyes, represent a hopeful future in
a time full of uncertainties. This new generation has not yet been
confronted much with the harshness of 'real life', is open to
everything and is afraid of nothing. This is clearly reflected in how
they present themselves: full of confidence and averse to
restrictions.
Apparently,
Stalin has said of Boris Pasternak: "Leave him alone, he is a
cloud-dweller." This way the writer was saved from execution
because the dictator did not take him seriously, while his novel
Doctor Zhivago would later prove to have an enormous influence on the
worldwide image of the Soviet regime. Anya Janssen applies the term
cloud-dweller to her students at the ArtEZ art academy in Arnhem,
where she has been teaching since 2004. They
too may seem like dreamers with their heads in the clouds, but they
do possess a 'soft force' that can change the world.
