All the King's Horses: Lydia Janssen

American artist, Lydia Janssen will make her Singapore debut with her latest body of works at REDSEA Gallery, located at Dempsey Hill, opening 27 January 2018. ‘All the Kings Horses’ is a painted collection of short stories presented on large canvasses spanning the last five years since the former dancer, turned artist, relocated to Singapore from New York City.

As a former professional dancer who suffered several injuries which left her unable to dance, Singapore-based, American artist Lydia Janssen illustrates the raw and beautiful chaos of putting herself back together again through the fluid brushtrokes on her canvas. Illustrating her emotional and physical journey from dancer to painter, her works are an autobiography of her relationship with her body with moving images, that take on a life of their own which are at once powerful and moving.

A visceral follower of the powerful women who dominate the world of feminist artists, such as Cecily Brown and Tracy Emin, Janssen, invites the viewer to witness her sometimes chaotic rebirth thru a palpable authenticity. Earthy clay-like colour tones of ochre, umber and mustard mixed with vivid shades of blues and greens are like music to the eyes to evoke a softer remeniscence of the cave-like drawings of both Willem and Elaine de Kooning.

‘All the King’s Horses’, a title taken from the famous English nursery rhyme, is a rich tapestry of body parts such as breasts, arms, phalli, and feet, animals including horses, numbers, and other seemingly random objects figuratively woven together in abstract expressionist form, tell a story and elucidate a complex thought process, capturing the primal movements in her mind, which previously came from her body.

“Humpty gets up, falls again and so on, and so on….lesson learning, finding beauty in the unbeautiful, order in the disarray, true grit, changing course and moving through life”, says Janssen as the viewer is enticed to examine further ideas which may disturb, but also delight, as they find their own meaning in Janssen’s mad dance of personal discovery.