Before applying the oil paint to the canvas, artist Jisan Ahn collects images from the media, which he first processes in drawings, collages and miniatures. With his paintings he wants to question the factuality of media images and he plays with the physical versus the virtual world, the real versus the unreal. Other artists such as Bas Jan Ader and Vincent van Gogh are also sources of inspiration and find their way on his canvases. Furthermore, he draws on his own memory and emotions that are evoked by these situations and events.
Because he had a carefree childhood, he is always searching for the feeling of discomfort in himself. When he finds it, he translates it into images with the aim to evoke this discomfort to the viewer as well. In previous work he accentuated this objective by depicting explosions, slaughtered animals and hunting scenes, presently he paints in a more poetic way. A sweater on a coat hanger where snakes roll out of the sleeves, a man who disappears under a huge mountain of black and white photos. The ordinary, the everyday and the repetitive is his subject. Human figures are often absent; the emptiness of the space approaches you without mercy. And if people are present, their stances are disheartened. They don't seem to want to be where they are, but unable to change that.