Jason Hendrik Hansma

Jason Hendrik Hansma’s (b.1988) work explores the in-between, the liminal, and the nearly articulate. Drawing from a wide range of references and materials, Hansma’s work deals with standards, architectural, cultural, and physical, along with how works are made outside of standardized norms. For Hansma, a photograph might be created over months, an entire exhibition might happen in ‘transitional spaces’ such as hallways, doorways, or window sills. A hand-stitched curtain slows down an exhibition’s motion, providing a soft cut moved by a slight breeze from outside air or a film focuses on the moment a wave crashes into architecture. Amateur videos of embers recorded from bushfires are cut to chopped and screwed, and textiles from the artist’s ancestors are refolded and formed into new painterly landscapes. In the work, language (and the loss of language) plays a key role in moving through the politics of aesthetics to reconsider the means we use to locate ourselves through and with each other.

Hansma’s work is grounded in deep, long-term and extensive research. He draws on fields such as archival studies, philosophy, language development, and digital culture. He often forms small research teams with experts from different backgrounds, allowing ideas to grow through dialogue and shared inquiry. Projects unfold slowly over several years, with materials, language, and ethics evolving together over time.

Jason was born in Lahore Pakistan, completed a Master of Fine Art at the Piet Zwart Institute, and was a participant at the Jan van Eyck.

Exhibitions, performances, readings, and screenings have been included at the Grand Palais, UNESCO, Bauhaus, Dessau, Maison van Doesburg, KADIST, Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, Art Basel Hong Kong’s Satellite Program, Eye Filmmuseum, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius, Centre Georges Pompidou, Parc Saint-Léger Centre d’art Contemporain, Centre International d’art et du paysage de l’île de Vassivière, Center For Contemporary Art Futura, Jan van Eyck and De Appel amongst others.

Hansma’s work has been featured in Frieze Magazine, Artforum, Vogue Magazine, Purple Magazine, Vanity Fair, Flash Art, NSS Magazine, amongst others. His work has been screened as an artistic address to both the European Parliament and the World Economic Forum.

Jason Hendrik Hansma has been a tutor at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, the Master Program at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK), Master of Artistic Research at the University of Amsterdam, Brno University of Technology Faculty of Fine Arts, Artez, St. Joost School of Art & Design, Sandberg Instituut and was a Rietveld/Sandberg research fellow. Jason is also an advisor to the Mondriaan Fonds (Dutch National Visual Arts Foundation) committee.

Jason is co-director and co-curator of Shimmer (along with curator Eloise Sweetman), an exhibition space and curatorial studio. Shimmer has collaborated with and shown over 200 practices such as stanley brouwn, Raqs Media Collective, Ellen Gallagher, Charlotte Posenenske, Theo van Doesburg, Marcel Duchamp, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Lawrence Weiner, amongst others.

Jason lives and works in Rotterdam and Berlin.

Aside from this website, an additional portfolio is downloadable here