Jason Hendrik Hansma

Wool Flannel, silk grosgrain, silk ‘twist’ thread, nylon, polished metal hardware.
285cm x 285cm x 3
Tailoring: Max Thomas Sanderson

Photography: GRAYSC

  1. An image of a flash shows a fish's tail moving to the left of the frame. Following the form, one can nearly make out the head of the fish, directly facing the camera lens. The fish floats in the centre of the frame. At the lower part of the frame, speckles dot the surface of an aquarium.
  2. A Japanese screen is shown, an attempt has been made to depict the reverse side of the screen. The screen displays chrysanthemum flowers. Photographed behind glass, the screen reflects additional images of the museum space, that reveal other vitrines.
  3. A washed-out black-and-white image depicts a figure running along the right side of the frame. In motion, the person moves towards the left side of the image, causing their image to blur. The ground is layered with strong shadows and bright spots of light.
  4. A cloud of steam engulfs a car as it drives through the cloud. The image captures the front of the hatchback disappearing, whilst the back remains visible to the viewer. On the upper left of the frame, an electricity pole can be made out with electrical cables also extending into the haziness.
  5. Japanese screens depict chrysanthemums and other vine-based flowers. Museum glass causes reflections in front of the screen. The image contains a lot of grain, causing the flowers to be hard to disern.
  6. A roll of tape peaks through a bag, the bag sits on a floor of a former textile mill. The floor has had a 'leather' texture 'motif' rolled into the concrete. Preventing slippage on the factory floor. A luggage tag falls onto the floor from one of the handles of the duffle bag. On the image are the words 'KODAK' with the frame number (8) burnt onto the image.
  7. A small child (the artist's son) helps install a new exhibition. In his hand is a paint brush which he is using to paint a storage box. In front of the child is a desk in a gallery. Filled with a laptop, glasses, cups and a cutting mat. In the background a cracked window opens up to a wintery day with leafless trees.
  8. A series of small clouds painted in a soft-brush style create a mottled pattern over the image. In the background a person is seen in the glass reflection of the image, who hovers with a camera up to his face.
  9. A table wrapped in bubble wrap, shows the surface during the installation of an exhibition. A range materials have 'accrued' on the table, during the installation of an exhibition. Boxes containing photographs, gloves, paper towels, hammer, tin snips, books, catalogues, a thermos and finally glasses stacked within other glasses. In the lower section of the frame, a bin has begun to overflow.

Selected work

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.

Jason was born in Lahore Pakistan, in 1988, 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 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, Hordaland Kunstsenter, Centre International d’art et du paysage de l’île de Vassivière, Center For Contemporary Art Futura, Jan van Eyck and De Appel among others.

Jason Hendrik Hansma has been a tutor at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, the Masters Program at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK), Masters of Artistic Research at the University of Amsterdam, and was a Rietveld/Sandberg research fellow.

Jason is co-director of Shimmer (along with curator Eloise Sweetman), an exhibition space in the shipping port of Rotterdam. Shimmer has collaborated with and shown over 120 practices such as stanley brouwn, Raqs Media Collective, Ellen Gallagher, Charlotte Posenenske, Theo van Doesburg, Marcel Duchamp, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, PUBLICS, Sarah Rifky, Lawrence Weiner and Louwrien Wijers, amongst others.

Jason has lived and worked in Paris, Berlin, Bangkok, Tokyo, and Amsterdam and currently lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Recent texts/books

  • In Our Real Life
    New book of photography and essays, published by Shimmer Press 2024

  • Say it Right
    published by the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Instituut, research fellowship project, 2022

    Download Here

  • The Voice that Remains – PUBLICS Helsinki
    Published by Lugemik & PUBLICS, 2024

    Download Here

  • When it Comes to Certain Songs, Aphasia, the Studio, Abstraction and Disability.
    With annotations by Élisabeth Lebovici, Joseph Grigely, and Gordon Hall, 2019

    Download Here

  • A Centre Cannot Hold
    New publication with a text by Jo-ey Tang, 2020

    Download Here

Forthcoming/Recent

  • 2019
    Reading and panel discussion at De Appel, Amsterdam
  • 2019
    Reading by Kris Dittel at De Appel for Amsterdam Art Weekend
  • 2019
    ‘When it Comes to Certain Rooms’ La Maison Van Doesburg, Paris
  • 2019
    De l’île au monde, Centre international d’art et du paysage Île de Vassivière
  • 2019
    Il est une fois dans l’Ouest, Frac Aquitaine – La MECA, Bordeaux
  • 2019
    State of Transparency, Looiersgracht 60 Amsterdam
  • 2019
    LW/LW with Louwrien Wijers and Lawrence Weiner at Shimmer (curator)
  • 2019
    Residency and exhibition at La Maison Van Doesburg, Paris
  • 2019
    Exhibition at Videotage and Art Basel, Hong Kong