Scharrer, Eva. "Critic's Picks, Berlin: Jan Christensen, c/o - Atle Gerhardsen", www.artforum.com, March, 2004
Jan Christensen's recent work combines the sketchiness of notebook scribbles with the decorative monumentality of mural painting. His current exhibition consists of a single wall painting composed of textual fragments; its Kippenberger-esque moniker Some Titles for Which I Don't Know What to Make alludes to imaginary, yet-to-be realized works. Like Lawrence Weiner's wall texts, the "titles" could be read as instructions for pieces to be completed in the viewer's head. But the laconic, self-referential phrases (such as THIS IS NOT THE WORST I'VE LOOKED, IT'S JUST THE MOST I'VE EVER CARED) recall familiar states of mind rather than, say, sculptures or artistic concepts. The Conceptualist longing for the dematerialization of art through language is cheerfully reversed into an objectification of words/thoughts through paint. The result is a vivid, oscillating, corner-wrapping composition in bright candy colors that have been applied to the wall in multiple layers of different transparency. The layering and blending simulates a multiplanar hypertext, in which each word/letter leads to another suppressed—or superimposed?—level. The piece accumulates in a graphically dramatic clash of words, form, and color, beautifully visualizing the nonlinearity of mediated reading and thinking. —Eva Scharrer
