Amélie Joos - Drawings

Amélie Joos expresses a certain melancholy. According to the artist, she takes advantage of these moments to work. In these moments, favorable for creation, reflection and reverie which triggers the imagination.
Amélie Joos' drawings, often small in format conducive to intimate narratives, generally appear in the form of automatic writing. In a single stroke, often impulsive or even aggressive, the interior images are translated without sketches, in a direct and immediate manner on the sheet.

Sehnsucht, details series of 40 drawings, oil and pencil on paper, 2016.

In this creative process, Amélie Joos attempts to bring forth images from her unconscious. For the artist, drawing is the most direct means of expression, it allows images to be immediately translated onto the sheet.

The starting point of a work is multiple. All these emotions are expressed in an enigmatic way and can provoke ambivalent feelings in the viewer. The multiple and ambiguous meaning of his work is of great importance. As if the artist was questioning our own anxieties, our confinements, our dreams, to give us something to see and meditate on.

In her drawings and paintings, which can be described as representations of the unconscious, she describes a dreamlike universe, bringing forth images that are both deeply intimate while touching on archetypes belonging to the collective unconscious. 

Writing plays an essential role in his work. Sometimes automatic writing, sometimes messenger of a precise claim, (“you promised me”, “you are
mine”, “tomorrow everything will be fine” ...).
The presence of writing is never trivial. It is an integral part of the work, creating a balance that is both semantic and pictorial. The artist juggles with languages, more precisely with English, French and German (his mother tongue).

Amélie Joos plays with the sounds and meanings of each sentence. For the artist, writing: “I am your princess” in French does not have the same sensual and visual impact as in English: “I'm your princess”. English has the particularity of being universal, it is precise, direct, unambiguous. For me, the French and German languages ​​are more intimate and the meaning of words is often multiple and complex.

The choice of one language or another in a drawing is therefore deliberate. Some words only exist in one language and not in another.