Expat Living Singapore featured Lydia Janssen's solo exhibition Yellow Brick Road, on view at REDSEA Gallery, Dempsey Hill, January 12–22, 2023.
About the Exhibition
What is home? A place? A sensation? Stillness? Movement? Anchoring? Detachment? Is homeliness to be found in the vibrant now or in our memories?
In her latest work, Janssen explores the concepts of home and homeliness. Inspired by the Wizard of Oz and Dorothy's quest to return to Kansas — and the characters she meets along the way — Janssen investigates what it means to belong and feel at home.
In 2011, Janssen, her husband and their first-born daughter moved from New York City to Singapore; seven years later as a family of five, they moved to Bali, Indonesia. In 2020, having traveled between five countries during the pandemic in an attempt to get back to their home in Bali, Janssen became fascinated with the psychology of space, place and how one's definition of home changes when living a nomadic life.
"How can you belong somewhere when you are an expatriate, an immigrant, a foreigner, an outsider, a newcomer, a visitor, a guest; unfamiliar with the local customs and the language spoken?"
Movement has always been home for Janssen — her past as a professional dancer leaves clear traces in all of her paintings. In this new work, movement is investigated in a vast variety of shapes: twisting, running, roaring animals; bodies that curve and spin, unfold and crumble; waves of colour and light; rocking horses and long hair thrown forcefully back forming vibrant curved lines.
The layers of wrapped furniture are characteristic of Janssen's new work. Inspired by the artist duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Janssen's exploration of home includes wrapped sofas and chairs, leaving the viewer wondering what it takes for familiar, everyday objects to stop being recognisable, and whether recognisability is a prerequisite for homeliness.
And the road says to me, "Come and follow me, for I am your future."
And I say to both my house and the road, "I have no past, nor have I a future.
If I stay here, there is a going in my staying; and if I go there is a staying in my going.
Only love and death will change all things."