Essay for Yaniv Janson's 'Bees In Trees' Exhibition. Cottleston Tauranga.
By Katherine Steeds
Yaniv Janson's works 'Bees in Trees' are dominated by horizontal lines and blue and green open spaces. On
his large square canvases, squared off mountains, ponds, and lollipop
trees are arranged with an apparent naïve simplicity, yet closer
contemplation reveals sophisticated size and placement choices which are
used to create the illusion of great depth within the picture plane.
Objects cut by the edges of the fames hint at what landscapes continue
beyond, outside our view, but allow us to decide for ourself what they
might hold. Rubbed back acrylic textures also subtly suggest recession:
areas of flat colour draw attention with almost a sense of relief to
these small unevennesses, where the thick pigment has been applied then
scrubbed off again to reveal the glow of ground beneath through the
thinner colour.
People
are here, implied by their outdoor furniture, windmills, and neat rows
of vegetables and fruit trees, and they live compactly in tall apartment
houses set in expansive parks and gardens. But they are never to be
seen, for nothing moves, not even the bees which are hidden in their
nests, hanging tidily like yellow and black lanterns in trees. Trees
that grow in rows, on islands, singly on hills or flanking Janson's
fairytale idealised world where the viewer's imagination can travel at
its own pace, through half-remembered holidays and over lovely, gentle
lands under clear bright skies. Quirky things might happen here. Castles
are made of gold. And there is always time for picnics and long walks
in green serene fields and leisure to enjoy the views that stretch
almost unimpeded to the ever-present far horizontal sea's edge. The
paintings evoke a tamed and farmed world in which the needs of people,
plants and bees might exist co-exist in perfect harmony. Yet there are
hints that all is not right, for example with that sea-level lapping
alarmingly high on those tiny, funny little idyllic islands with their
precious, golden homes.
Janson's
large naive paintings from his 'Bees in Trees' series are unique. They
look simple, yet are rich, worthy of contemplation, and worth getting
lost in.
