Joas Nebe V. 2
- Editor at Titan Contemporary Publishing
- Jan 1
- 3 min read
Joas Nebe is a collage and video artist who has exhibited across Europe and the United States. Recent exhibitions include Decagon Gallery and Starta Arta Gallery in New York, Earth Gallery and Biddle Brothers in London, Fountain Street Gallery in Boston, and MADS Gallery in Milan. He has been published by notable publications such as LandEscape Contemporary Art Review - Biennale edition, New York Weekly, and Disruptor Magazine.
The collage work of Joas Nebe focuses on how semiotics and visual language from obsolete reading material, such as old Encyclopedia Britannica's as well as vintage newspapers and magazines, detail on the overflow of information in the digital age. These collages can be described as absurd and macabre, sometimes containing fantastical elements such as flying demons in the sky. Often, we will find disfigured figures and portraits, as if a magnifying glass had been put over their bodies as well as misplaced objects amidst backgrounds, such as wild animals prowling an interior. We will sometimes find the use of texts within these collages indicating the role of obsolete information in the digital age. The absurdity of the imagery is meant to be a social commentary on digital realms rather than just about humour. These works speak to the entrapment on fields of information, in turn expressing a regurgitation of an overload of input into the human mind from computers and other digital devices.
With an often crude application, Joas Nebe’s collages are highly improvised, revealing a fluxus mindset and approach to image-making. The approach may be fluxus but there remains a clear conceptual intention with the works. Because of the disturbing juxtaposition of the imagery along with the rough cut-outs, the collages can be regarded as anti-commercial. Such an anti-social approach to art is more concerned with interpreting the age we live in, specifically the age of information, rather than serving as a decorative element. The vintage nature of the cutouts along with the absurdity of the juxtaposition of figurative elements reveals narratives which are as macabre as they are revealing. As a result, the artist seems to blend mythology with historical reality, constructing his own story as to how we remember the past and immediate fleeting moments of time. Joas Nebe’s collages are a clever commentary on how a mythological and even superhuman or Nietzschean interpretation of information and documentation leads to unusual occurrences and acute observations of time interrupted.
C1324 (pictured above) depicts a collage with texts from what appears to be an encyclopedia or some other type of academic texts. In the background we will find a woman in a cowl, followed by a set of drums and a skull. What could have been a simple historical depiction of an old woman turns into a mythological portrayal similar to a witch brewing a poisonous cocktail with a device. The way the drums and skull are assembled appears like a witch’s brew of ‘boiling trouble’.
The imaginative collage works of Joas Nebe are a testament to the power of collage and assemblage as relevant artforms in the digital and information era. His absurd and ironic takes on combining imagery constructs new narratives to ponder and question upon the purpose of contemporary identity as well as a rebellious rejection of systems of information, such as the world wide web. If we take a deep dive into his works, the audience will discover a world of great and vivid distortion, far removed from the confines of reality but heavily sourced from historical narratives. These collages are a retelling of history from an artist who behaves as a muse, a philosophical sage who concocts mythological imagery on a whim of his imagination based on how absurd he finds the overflow of text and visual stimulation and information. History becomes refashioned towards new constructed narratives as Joas Nebe reveals the artist as the revolution, not just as a conduit towards one. In his world, the artist is the vehicle of the art through the manipulation of raw data to express how fleeting moments of memory become overwhelming electrical interference of information destroying the fragile aspects of the mind seeking simplicity, purity, and peace.
