2018 Jan Cleveringa- Scenic Sculpture Prize- 'Imagining the Past Before it Happens'

Artist ~ Jan Cleveringa
Title ~ 'Imagining the Past Before it Happens'
2018 / Photo: artist
Art Installation- 5,000 fluoro light globes.

Review by Gina Fairley, ArtsHub

http://visual.artshub.com.au/news-article/reviews/visual-arts/gina-fairley/review-sculpture-at-scenic-world-255553?utm_source=ArtsHub+Australia&utm_campaign=d58fa0bb37-UA-828966-1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2a8ea75e81-d58fa0bb37-304183937

I've recently installed at Scenic Sculpture 2018 commenting about sustainability, big business and a future.

Set in the Jurassic Rainforest.

Special thanks to Harry, Clytie and @justinmorrissey for installation support.

2018 "Perspectives" A Solo Exhibition- Jan Cleveringa- Sheffer Gallery- Opening 14th March 2018

"Perspectives" Exhibition is a contemporary, multidisciplinary show exploring impacts of global cultural change, attitudes and identity resulting in painting, sculpture, video and other forms.

Essentially, the exhibition explores a range of growing cultures and their paradigmatic shifts in formation and their impacts on society. This includes uncovering myths, prophetic possibilities and subjective knowledges that elucidate new and interesting ideas.

2017 Recent Paintings from Electronic Sketches- Mobile Phone Project

Cleveringa-Screenshot1'-Painting-Canvas-60x45x4cm

Cleveringa-Screenshot2'-Painting-Canvas-60x45x4cm

Cleveringa-Screenshot3'-Painting-Canvas-60x45x4cm

2017 Jan Cleveringa- Doin the Math- Sculpture

'Doing the Math' is a factory and commodified looking sculpture made from recycled materials using a dispersed angular form talking about technological rebirth, change by stealth, slow cultural change and waste-renewal much likened to a "zero sum game".

"In game theory and economic theory, a zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant's gain or loss of utility is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the utility of the other participants.

(2017: Zero-sum game - Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game)

The artwork is made from fluorescent light bulbs which are being slowly replaced by new LED technology. The artist recognizes and points to the change, as an idea whereby the change is occurring almost insidiously by stealth and unknown, as generally only a few people in society recognize the global change that is occurring and its potential impact socially in our culture and subsequently in people's lives and it's affect when digesting, sharing and refashioning the environment thus impacting unconsciously on identity.

Furthermore, the artist explores ideas around waste and sustainability and a Call to Action regarding 'Green Power' and it's parameters.

2017 Jan Cleveringa- A Moving World- Installation Sculpture, Scenic Sculpture Prize Finalist

2017 Jan Cleveringa
“A Moving World”
Sculpture/Installation- Three tombstones set amongst rainforest 

(288 Fluorescent Light Tubes, silicon, wood)
Scenic World Sculpture finalist, Blue Mountains, Australia.

The slim, white lined, sterile, repetitive and banal commodity of 288 defunct fluorescent light globes (tubes) are sculptured into a three tombstones and driven upward, vertically, bare and naked against the growing green, lively, humus rainforest around it, which, constantly grows whilst reclaiming the damaged areas previously caused by human presence which was once a coal mine.

'A Moving World' raises questions about time, sustainability, renewability, the environment and the machine of business. It is also designed to recognize the impact of changing technologies on our environment, our culture, our attitudes and social patterns and what drives these changes.

'A Moving World' is a representation about rebirth, slow cultural change, waste and renewal. The installation is made from 288 fluorescent light bulbs in which its fluoro technology is being replaced by new LED light technology. The bulbs do not light up and are likened to the bones of the past. They are redundant and re-imagined. It is juxtaposed by, and set, in the lush, humid rainforest (of the Blue Mountains, Sydney Australia) which may invoke a range of wider implications.

The tombstone is a metaphor for this rebirth of both technology and the associated social changes of its impact. We don’t often think about how technology changes us socially and sometimes we do. We sometimes predict the future impact correctly and sometimes we get it wrong. We only need to look at the impact of the TV to see how the social pattern of the family living room was affected from once where the seating may have functioned as a square pattern for a conversation- to one, now, more likely as a ‘U’ shape that faces the TV.

This artwork was particularly created to elucidate the slow change and impact as if ’almost by stealth’ in our society as its change is reasonably subtle when comparing it to the TV or the rise of the internet, the mobile phone or global warming’s impact on attitudes in society. We seem oblivious to its changing impact in the many areas of human interaction like waste, industry, the home and future- not to mention influences on architecture, design, mood, the home and business into the future.

2016 Jan Cleveringa- "The Passing"- Hidden Sculpture Exhibition

As a contemporary artist who explores impacts of global cultural change and identity.  "The Passing", is a grave top installation sculpture made from 1,000 fluorescent light bulbs at Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney, as part of Hidden Sculptural Exhibition Rookwood Cemetery 2016 that won a commended award.

The Installation is a representation about slow cultural change affecting identity, waste and renewal.

It raises further questions about time, sustainability, the environment and the machine of business which partly influences identity formation and culture. In other words, it is about recognizing the impact of changing technologies on our culture, our attitudes and social patterns and what drives these changes.

It is a slow phenomenon where most of us seem oblivious to its effects in the many areas of human interaction like industry, the home and our future. Fluorescent lighting is being replaced by LED lighting.

Will this small change influence architecture, the backyard BBQ, mining, travel and reception areas? Will it affect our social patterns?

Are we recognizing these changes and impacts?

www.parramattasun.com.au/story/4194337/cemetery-comes-to-life/

"Epiphany"- Light Art Projection Installation- Finalist 2016 Chippendale New World Art Prize

"Epiphany," (a projection onto canvas) is inspired by colour, beauty and the spiritual uses new world technology much like a painter that sketches a study for a painting. I have misused phone app software to make electronic sketches as small as 2kb in size (rather than pencil) that have been enlarged, changed and continually developed and screenshot until I have been satisfied in its final form for an oil painting or this projection work which goes onto canvas. This particular work asks- is it a painting, a photograph, a projected light work, a moving image, a technological installation, an abstract work or realism? Is it about technology and beauty?
‘Epiphany’ uses the aesthetics of and the discipline of painting (once claimed as ‘dead’) where painting continues to be inspired by new and exciting technologies that also seem to impact on our social culture, identity, beauty and the everyday.

There are about 2-3 Billion people using mobile phone app edited images distorting their reality to make their lives and reflective images seem more beautiful than they really are and thus creating a pseudo reality phenomenon. How does this influence attitudes about identity and beauty? What are the social consequences on the human psyche, its impact and our attitudes in contemporary society?

2015 Jan Cleveringa & Abbas Makrab- part 1. Our Centenary Anzac Memorial Mosaic

2015 Jan Cleveringa & Abbas Makrab- part 1.

Our Centenary Anzac Memorial mosaic- commissioned by Blacktown Council NSW.

2015- part 5. Centenary Anzac Memorial Mosaic Commission

Commissioned by Blacktown Council NSW.

2014 Hatch Arts Program, Sunnyfield

I was so pleased and happy to be part of this great Sunnyfield art program named Hatch Series 4.

My love to all who participated. It's a great thing.

http://www.unbardtv.org.au/#!series-4/c1302

2014 Jan Cleveringa- "Who?"

2014 Jan Cleveringa- "Who?"
Acrylic Paint, Bones and Resin on Canvas,
62 x 62 x 4cm

I have rejected my usual approach to painting for a more installation type work using uncomfortable materials in a passionate way about my spiritual experience through depressed eyes. Depression a has been exposed using a ghastly experience being expressed through somewhat ghostly and disturbing material. Nothing can be more naturally insecure than to expose deep horrible feelings of despair, loss and contradictory hope in the conundrum of depression.

The stigma, the discrimination about mental health, and the commonality of the illness in our growing society. The emotional realities like switching realms allows for a changed spiritual perception and for life changing different views. An experience, hard to share in intensity.

In this work, I collected these bones for over a year from chickens that I ate whilst thinking about this work, unsure of what would result or if I would use them. I just needed to collect them. Each bone having been in my mouth and their flesh ingested symbolise the organic human needs like hunger, love and morbidity raising the big faith questions of "Who am I and why?" Hence, feeding off the flesh of animals and the normal but ritualistic time taken to do this provide a disturbing recognition and almost urky realisation of the human condition for the viewer. Perhaps a small glance into the similar disturbed condition of depression.

Here, open to different interpretation, the organic machine is broken like a machine wheel or human egg where intense emotions and spiritual awakenings/feelings come and go in a snapshot of a tide of glassy black like water washing against bones in an ebb and flow movement. An intuitive way of making art.

2014 Jan Cleveringa Artwork- "Fade"

2014 Jan Cleveringa- "Fade"
Installation Sculpture,
20,000 T5 Fluoroecscent Light Tubes,
Beams Festival, Chippendale Sydney

“Fade” is a luminous installation artwork about change. It talks about technology being replaced by the new. It is a metaphor for cultural formation where new things like technology, products, words, processes, attitudes, symbols and signals all get shared, digested and either become redundant (or used less) or simply kept as part of the dominant Hegemony, or slowly fade away- depending on its’ usefulness to the consumer or participant having the ability to change the product while it is being shared and digested and as time moves forward.

2014 Jan Cleveringa Artwork- "Fade" Light Installation NAVA Soup Session 3 My Pitch 29.08.2014 Raising Monies for Art

NAVA Soup Session Pitch 29.08.2014

Hi and welcome everyone…

My name is Jan Cleveringa….

Please come and talk to me anytime…tonight!

I want to talk to you about my passion for creating art. I want to share with you my journey and want you to be part of it….invest in it…. and be part of my trajectory further into the art world.

I have an arts practice that has been going now for a short while and I am a serious F/T... emerging artist.

My art is mostly about cultural change and Australian Identity.

But I will talk about me at the end…..if I have time.

I will get stuck right into it. ….I really ‘NEED’ your money for an art work next month.

I have been accepted into Sydney’s Chippendale… Art Precinct’s …BEAMS Art Festival… it’s next month on the Saturday the 27th. You should all come along as it’s a fantastic night of great new art…they block off about 7 streets and there is a huge range of different art, music and dance. They had 10,000 people see it last year.

Well….my artwork is an installation sculpture that uses light…..but not necessarily electricity.

I HAVE 30,000…. 1.2m ....fluorescent light tubes………………….. My art work has been accepted. ….. I already have them in storage…..on pallets…..My artwork is called….. “FADE”.

FADE talks about ….technology changing and …….slowly becoming redundant over time...FADING...from fluorescent lights to the new cheaper running… environmentally friendlier…LED lights …over time …and ……HOW it impacts on OUR culture and ….HOW we relate to this change. The technology FADES and the NEW comes in.

Fluorescent light was such a big thing…cheap and bright when invented… and now gradually being replaced over time.

FADE….much…. like…. how the mobile phone has created a new social change in our lives…24/7….and where a new language was created ….like OMG, BRB, …LOL …ROFLMAO etc… so too….will new lights also change how we interact at night, in the backyard, entertaining friends etc. ….(Changing light globes also show that we are moving to a Greener Culture).

So…..What do I need??????

I need your investment for a ….

- 4 tonne truck….. Can you imagine the logistics!!!!!
- Some wood panels
- Glue
- Perspex boxes
- Some ….Luminescent paint

- And … for documenting the art work…….. as part of my growing portfolio…. for applying to galleries as well.

So now … you know ……what your money is going too….. directly!

Can you imagine STACKING 30,000 fluoro light globes???? ……..And you can be part of it!!!! ….. Feel them…..imagine them…...

Did I mention….that….I am actually doing this artwork at my own cost and that BEAMS is all unpaid using volunteers. It’s all for the Sydney community. It provides an exciting new spectacle.

So if you want to volunteer….let me know as well….that would be fantastic!

So now… a bit about me….. I am a Western Sydney artist who began as an artist publicly only a few yrs ago…. A late starter.

I have been a constant finalist in some well-respected art prizes like the Blacktown City Art Prize, the Mosman Art Prize, …..as well as the Campbelltown, The Hawkesbury and other prizes. I am a painter, sculptor, Installation and video artist and my practice keeps exploring and growing.

I was awarded a 6 month Studio Residency at the Blacktown Art Centre last year …… and this year…. I finished a 2 month Studio Residency at the Purple Noon Gallery, at Freemans Reach near Windsor.

I also have a B. Arts from Sydney University majoring in Psychology…I went to Sydney College of the Arts and have a M. Mgt from the University of Technology, Sydney (in Community Management).

But ….. My most important accomplishment is my 4 beautiful kids. All girls.

What else?

I still work as a casual youth worker in Western Sydney but I also used to be a Manager looking after kids in Western Sydney. I ran programs regarding homelessness, young people, women’s refuges, Young Mums, Drug and Alcohol, Juvenile Justice programs and some Aboriginal Services …with… and for …….Aboriginal peoples.

I’ve worked in Community Welfare for about 20 yrs.

I did have a break…. and some people get a little shocked when I tell them…. but I was also a Funeral Director up the Mid north Coast for 2 years…. But that’s more about me ….exploring the world.

PICASSO once said …when asked….”What is your favourite painting ….that you ever did?” and he said, “It’s my next one!”

Overall, ….before my pitch FADE’s into your memories, … I would just like to say thank you all for letting me be part of today and …to my competitors and …everyone from NAVA and 107 for giving me the chance.

Thank you!

2014 Jan Cleveringa "You've Got Stars in Your Eyes" Interactive Installation

2014 "You’ve Got Stars in Your Eyes"
Microscope and Australian Flag
33cm x 11cm x 20cm
& Photograph
An Interactive Installation Artwork

“Looking, literally, through a microscope” the viewer is focused on the Australian Flag as part of Australian identity and more specifically on the smallest star in the Southern Cross. The flag is bedded down as a sticker onto a transparent plastic slide. A torch light hits the mirror underneath elucidating and reflecting onto the flag literally “shining a light” on probably the most prominent symbol of Australian identity. The circular image with a star shown here is a photograph taken through the microscope as a viewer/participant would see it. They would also see the various colours in the image that make up the blue and white colours in the print, perhaps, representing the various peoples and different attitudes that a democracy like Australia might represent through a flag when an issue arises in the national interest.

The artist is interested about how this symbol can be manipulated by people to achieve their goals and the dangers involved with regards to Australian Identity and how Australians see themselves For, example, the seeming political football about ‘Boat People’ and along with it the fears, myths and misinformation used and shaped by political parties, interest groups and individuals to achieve their goals in the community. This could also be said true about the subject of climate change in Australia as part of national identity as part of the dominant cultural hegemony of thought that exists (currently) and how it's formed, shared and digested as a population creating a future cultural direction.

“You’ve Got Stars in Your Eyes” is a serious artwork despite the sarcastic title and visual puns involved in the work. The title is a colloquial phrase from the artists upbringing that means to the artist- be warned about being blinded to dazzling things, about being a dreamer or about being starry-eyed to celebrity and charisma. (A phrase likely to be based upon Shakespeare’s words “All that glitters is not gold”.) It can be dangerous without discovering for one-self the seeming objective driven facts and making an informed decision rather than relying on trust and attraction. A person does not need to go far to remember the Flag of Nazi Germany in WWII to understand the positive and negative aspects of such a symbol as a catalyst for using and growing underwritten semiotic values and attitudes. It may seem an unfair comparison in this context regarding WWII but again we need to continually ask ourselves, “Have We got Stars in Our Eyes?” about any of these current and future issues about who Australian's are as a people and who you are personally.

2014 Jan Cleveringa"Belly-ache"Sculpture/Installation

This Sculptural/Installation work is about Australian Identity in terms of symbolic and textual cultural signifiers within the dominant and growing Hegemonic Anzac culture in Australia.

The Anzac biscuits, coated in resin, are symbolically preserved and locked into history as the biscuit that Australian families sent to the troops in WWI due to their capacity to stay edible over time. Every year the tradition is kept alive by Australians eating, sharing and digesting these biscuits on Anzac day, and other days, reinforcing it as a social, visual and digestible cultural symbol.

The word ‘belly-ache’, is used, because it is derived from soldier slang in WWI meaning a ‘mortal wound in the guts’ (Bruce Moore (2000) The Anzacs and their Words). It is an Australian word that is still used today, though it has lost its original meaning it is still used contemporarily to describe an upset stomach. It is idiosyncratically Aussie.

'Belly-ache' is ascribed to the serving tray which is placed upon Royal Blue velvet as a symbol of the boats landing at the shores of Gallipoli. The biscuits represent both the soldiers sitting in the boat and also as a foodstuff that was sent to the troops later by those people that love/d them. They also act as a symbol today.

This reflective artwork is based in a symbolic reality that is both semiotically and literally digested, shared and refashioned every day in Australian culture.

The artwork represents the crisp, starry-eyed, anxious feelings by soldiers in their boat going on an adventure, fresh and unblemished by the hell that is war, and the future to come. These poor soldiers will get eaten alive.

2014 Jan Cleveringa"What On Earth Are We Eating Exhibition"At The Vanishing Point Gallery, NewtownAssorted Paintings

Cleveringa’s painting is an act of sharing, digesting, and reproducing a cultural perspective into something that is current, refashioned and new.

He raises issues about the symbols, signs and signifiers involved in the context of Australian identity.

The subjects,words and phrases he uses are from a perceived ‘Aussie culture.’ They create a semiotic awareness used in everyday life. They pose questions about cultural Hegemonies, group polarization, and the ingredients of what an ‘Aussie culture’ might be.

He uncovers change mechanisms, attitudes, world influences, technological change, political leadership, and other shared acts that create or reinforce Aussie culture.

These paintings are about semiotically digesting supposed iconic ‘Aussie Foods’. What makes them Australian? How are they an act of culture, associated with producing, sharing, and digesting them both literally but also their related symbology, signs and signifiers? How do they promote, include, exclude and reinforce Aussie values in terms of Australian identity?

2013 "A Dinkum Anzac Bickie Mate"
Acrylic and Enamel Paint on Marine Plywood
60cm x 80cm x 4.8cm

2013 "A Humdinger Pav Mate"
Acrylic and Enamel Paint on Marine Plywood
60cm x 80cm x 4.8cm

2013 "Vegie Toast and a Cuppa Mate"
Acrylic and Enamel Paint on Marine Plywood
60cm x 80cm x 4.8cm

2013 "A Ripper Steak and Veg Mate"
Acrylic and Enamel Paint on Marine Plywood
60cm x 80cm x 4.8cm

2014 ResidencyPurple Noon Gallery (2 Mths)

2014 Residency (Apr-May, 2mths)
Freeman's Reach, NSW.

Thank you Robyn Williams, Director.

2011-2013 Jan Cleveringa"Power Tool Paintings"

Cleveringa is interested in the idea of culture as a shared experience between people. He sees his painting as act of sharing, digesting, and reproducing cultural experiences into something that is refashioned and new.

His current work is about the symbols and signs of ‘male-ness’ in the context of Australian identity. The text that is incorporated are words invoked from Australian culture. These works are about the semiotics behind Australian Identity.

2013 Jan Cleveringa"The Australian Identity Series"Collage Series

"The You Beaut Country and the Cricket BBQ"
Collage on Paper

This artwork is about the typical Aussie Cricket Barbecue (BBQ or Barbie) where people can be invited over to watch the Cricket on TV either whilst having the BBQ. It might also be a family affair at home.

The use of "The You Beaut Country" text comes not only from a phrase used in Australian culture but also comes from John Olsen's Video documentary some many years ago when he painted Lake Ayers when the rains hit and made the lake massive and full of life (A childhood memory of mine so to say).

The picture, though seemingly humorous using the visual pun of the cricket, is a serious part of Aussie culture in the Summer season and some of the glue that informs Australians that they are Aussies and part of Aussie culture. This may be true for the new migrants too who may learn about Cricket to be less culturally different to others. It exposes one way of fitting into Australian life and an opportunity not to be so different. There are plenty of semiotic undertones and signifiers here into Australian culture, its formation and production, for those theorists amongst us. Perhaps, it's part of the dominant Aussie cultural Hegemony.

Hit it for Six mate!

2013 "A Wilful, Lavish Land Holding up Australia Day"
Collage on Paper

2013 Australian Identity Series
"Scanning the Aussie Meathead My Homing Thoughts Will Fly"
Collage and Paper

2013 Residency (6mths)Blacktown Art CentreBlacktown City Council

2013 Jan Cleveringa "Not Everyone Gets Cake"Collage On 220gsm Paper

2013 Jan Cleveringa
"Not Everyone Gets Cake"
Collage On 220gsm Paper
42 x 59.5cm

Cleveringa's continuing delving into the context of Australian Identity in his arts practice and his fascination with grid forms, repetition and collage are used to create a tapestry of colour and exaggeration in terms of the welfare state in Australia.

The use of the words 'Dole-Bludger' is common place in Australian households. It is used to describe lazy Australians who are unemployed or refuse to work. It is part of the Hegemonic cultural stereotype used negatively for the unemployed, mostly young people, in Australian society. It has various connotations and uses, including those uses that are humorous and serious in conversation of everyday life. This word is also invariably used by political parties, and those in power, when there are points to be scored. Rarely is the term used when one uncovers the real need for a helping hand and their desperate, fragile position when needing the assistance. In the past, particularly in the Great Depression in Australian, the word 'Susso' was used meaning sustenance. Having a benefit was okay back then as half the country was unemployed including the middle class and rich.

Cleveringa's somewhat ironic use of the saying- 'not everyone gets cake' and his use of the aesthetically saccharin, pink iced cupcakes which are seemingly attractive to the eye and the stomach speaks about the 'Haves and Have Nots' in Australian society.

2013 Jan Cleveringa "The First Boat People" Finalist- Fishers Ghost, Campbelltown City Art Prize

2013 The First Boat People
Acrylic and Enamel Gloss Paint on Marine Plywood
160cm x 122cm x 4.8cm

2012- Jan Cleveringa "Fair Go Mate" Finalist- Fishers Ghost, Campbelltown City Art Prize

2012 "Fair Go Mate, Thumbs Up and Circular Saw"
Acrylic and Enamel Gloss on Canvas"
122cm x 152.5cm x 4cm

2012 Jan Cleveringa HOWZAT Finalist- Hawkesbury Art Prize

2012 "Howzat, Circular Saw and Arrow"
Acrylic and Enamel Exterior Gloss Paint on Marine Plywood
60cm x 60cm x 4.8cm

This artwork is about the symbols and signs of ‘male-ness’ in the context of Australian identity. The text that is incorporated are words invoked from Australian culture.