                       Der Mistelstand
                      Collage auf Pappe
                          70x50cm


                   

                   Der Zeitpunkt ist gekommen.
                      Wir werden eingeholt.
                      Die Natur erhebt sich,
  heftet sich an die Erzeugnisse unseres technologischen Hochmuts.
             Unser Dasein bedingt diesen Wendepunkt.
             Der langgehegte Traum der Megamaschine
                  sieht seinem Ende entgegen. 


                   

                       

DER MISTELSTAND  (2017)

ARKADIA (2016-)
analogue photography

The tale of Arkadia goes back to ancient hellenic mythology. 
As the place of a golden age it was meant to offer people a
life in idyllic nature apart from societal pressure and
tedious work. Summarizing the influence western culture
exercised on human beings during the last couple hundreds of
years humanity could not have gotten farer off this state of
embeddedness into nature and its possible benefits.
At the beginning of the 21. century the culturally induced
dichotomy of humans and nonhumans led us to a historic
turning point where two contrasting societal developments get
visible.  One is based on the idea of reflecting on the
defectiveness this greed-driven process has on our collective
wellbeing and emphasizes on the reestablishment of our
sensitiveness towards concepts of nature and sustainability.
The other one seems to be tending towards a continuing
technologically driven alienation of humans and nonhumans by
creating digital parallel universes.
 
In these times it is hard to tell where our relationship with
nature will end up.
The only thing obvious is that in the anthropocene an
awareness of holistic interrelations between humans and
nonhumans has to replace any dichotomous thinking. 
As humanity can not entirely turn back the clock of
industrialization the concept of a fertile hybridity between
technology and nature is likely to be what our future will be
based on.
In this body of work i want to visualize the current status
quo located inbetween traditional romanticizing and the
perspective of an ongoing amalgamation of humans, technology
and so called nature.

ARKADIA (2016-)

OMNIVOR415 
(2019-20)

The Omnivor is already watching us. 
Sneaking up behind our civilisational backs it is on the brink of consuming us entirely. 
At a time in geologic history when the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide surpassed 415 parts per million it is hard to imagine the Omnivor backing off again and the human reintegration into the spheres of nonhuman dominance not to happen. In order to depict the urgency of our planetary status quo i researched the biological term of the Omnivor as a symbol for nonhuman agency in the anthropocene. 
Following my point of view this biological expression fits the role of nonhumanity as an omnipresent force that will not hesitate to reinclude humanity into its planetary corpus.
For a proper visualization of this metaphorical concept it appeared to be necessary to create a body of work that could widen the viewers imagination to hypothetical future circumstances. 

The result is a series that shows architecture (representing the human sphere) and nature (representing the nonhuman sphere/the omnivor) in a dance-like process of amalgamation that is meant to evoke ambivalent feelings in the recipient.
On the one hand the ballet-like aesthetics and the sheer beauty of a seemingly fruitful and almost sexual hybridization may let us take a glimpse at a positive future in which we welcome the Omnivor and proactively work on human merging with nonhuman spheres.
On the other hand the images might be seen as depicting a future in which the Omnivor as a nonhuman tsunami-like predator simply overwhelms us, forcingly reintegrating every aspect of manmade culture back into itself.

OMNIVOR415 (2020)

ECHO II (2019-20)

The ongoing project focusses on the interrelations of human and
nonhuman agents using the example of ermine moths in inner city
parks of Berlin.
Appearance and spreading of this parasite insect is said to be
linked to anthropogenic climate change and since a few years more
and more small trees and bushes all over the city start this
yearly transformation due to warmer and dryer weather conditions.
These environmental echoes to human action can be seen as signs of
an ongoing process that is on its way to fundamentally transform
our „natural“ surroundings.
ECHO II can be seen as an approach to document and this way
control the transformation by taking a photograph of it every single day
of the process and then combine the results to create a large scale collage.


ECHO 2 (2019-20)

KONTROL (FRONT I-X)
Collages on cardboard
70x50cm
2018-20



Kontrol is a body of work reflecting human anxieties regarding nonhuman agents on a very personal as well as a collective level.
For a couple of years now my artistic practices focus on topics such as terraforming, our ever changing natural surrounding, the various definitions and concepts of nature and the endless web of interrelations between humanity and nonhumanity on planet earth. Since i was a small child various weather phenomena had the tendency to invoke anxiousness inside me. While it was seen as normal and somehow expected of a boy at the age of five to ten to fear loud thunderstorms sometimes even the wind itself left me crying and telling my parents not to take me outside until it was gone.I literally  seemed to be freightened by the possibility of being blown away and unable to keep my feet on the ground. So to say the most general fear of a loss of control an individual could experience. 
Kontrol does not show the skies as seen under natural circumstances but more as a result of the human will to control our habitat.
For many months whenever there was a phase of abnormal weather conditions (to warm, to dry, to stormy) i took hundreds of photographs of the skies, developped the b/w film and in an act of recycling and restructuring i made the weathers more aesthetical pleasant by printing the images on basic copy paper, cutting them into thousands of single clouds and rearranging them in large scale photocollages. 
On the one hand the intuitively arranged patterns carry a vague beauty that might cause pleasant feelings in the recipient because they seem to be in manmade order. On the other hand  they represent the human believe in proactively dominating so called nature in order to control our innermost archaic fear of it.  In 2020 the Anthropocene shows us the destructive force of this believe. Our will to control so called nature did not lead to the calming of its dangers but on the opposite has natural disasters grow to unseen dimensions. 

KONTROL (FRONT I-X) (2018-20)

Photobook II
portfolio 2014-16
60 pages + print
softcover
Edition 150 (signed and numbered)
worldwide shipping starting from 16/06/16

You can now preorder it using the link below the video
or directly at
www.janherdlicka.com/ii/ !

Video:
Direction: Jan Herdlicka
Cinematography and Cut: Nicolas Heinemann
Music: Olan Mill - Pine

Jan Herdlicka -  II (2016)

Digital Collage
70x50cm
Edition of 10 plus 1

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Jan Herdlicka