JWAN YOSEF

Jwan Yosef is a Syrian-born, Swedish-patriated visual artist working between London, UK and Los Angeles, CA. His works queer modernist principles of abstraction to critically interpose the activities of concealing and exposing. Yosef’s examination of the many power constructs behind representational imagery spans from the nostalgic qualities of old family photos to posed publicity images of the closeted celebrity Rock Hudson. The ubiquity of images and their hidden agendas and signifiers are vital concepts in today’s culture of mediated images. Yosef’s tactical use of abstraction serves opportunities to release entendres and challenge viewers to break from passive gazes towards a plurality of perspectives.

ABOUT THE WORK:

“The duality of the stretched duct tape has many forms in my mind, the idea of sexually being tied up and the contrasting form of near abduction-style restraint. The work plays with the thin line between sex and violence. This series too resists a single identity. The very strict, stretched form it takes on from wall to floor, however taut, holds an ephemeral quality where tensions ultimately meet temporality. A durational element comes into play and we see how quickly it can become a flaccid and torn object, dangling off the wall.” — Jwan Yosef