Joas Nebe: untitled, the Elephant in the Room, & Give My Regards To The Alps




In order to make something new, at least one or more of the elements used to fashion it should be virgin in some capacity. When bringing something into the world, it must be pure, uncorrupted, and highly refined. Otherwise, it’s just refashioning.

No one can be blamed for harbouring this opinion, as art supplies manufacturers are dependent on this being held in at least some capacity. For better or for worse, society continues to push agendas that champion profitability above all else. Despite this, contemporary art continues to challenge the idea that new components are fundamental to creating art.

The art of Joas Nebe isn’t the first, and critically, nor is it the last the last. His collage work involving the manipulation of leaflets, letters, postcards, and flyers brings a playful approach to the otherwise ruthless realisation of just how much material we get to use in order to bring our ideas to the masses.



Collideascope-style visuals accompany intermittent foley in Nebe’s video works. Jarring combinations of video and audio put the viewer in a trance, in full acknowledgement of the artwork titles, which are the third and most critical components.

Works such as BUY PORTUGUESE TILES, NOW! or STOP BUYING THRIFT CLOTHES! quickly establish a narrative. Permission is ceded to the artwork; the viewer is neither asked nor told; the scale, intensity, and literary instruction command surrender.

How often do we make decisions based completely on our own understanding? Rather than the hidden signals and subtext embroidered into the fabric of building exteriors that feed our subconcious mind, delicately influencing our outlook in plain sight.



Reproducibility comes at a range of costs. Give My Regards To The Alps fixates on two: image accuracy, and environmental implications. Standardisation marks the beginning of the end for the natural order we once took for granted. Colour formats process, deliver, reprocess, redeliver. Gradual decay is a hairline crack separating each step.

So much more is now possible with the advent of technological advancement. Destruction and construction march onward hand-in-hand as the combined most economically viable form of progress. Our perception is skewed to embrace the latter and ignore the former. And why wouldn’t we? It's not our problem. A phrase undoubtedly etched into the nameplate of each carriage transporting us forth into the future.

The fence keeping nature out has now been constrained and constricted to instead keep nature in. New nature isn't environmentally viable, because its energy requirements thrive off the expense of resources as opposed to existing in harmony with them.

The domestic environment only continues to entice. Why would I go to the mountains when I can see them right here? I’ll zoom in on a few satellite images, send my regards in a kind and neat email, and seek new distractions in which I can indulge. Perhaps I’ll order a framed print, even if the sky looks a little off.

Here, Joas Nebe conveys reproductive errors and climate breakdown as synonymous. Connecting the flaying strands of an overwhelmingly scattered and fragmented array of economic factors with the aim of reaching credible conclusions is humanity's greatest challenge.


Website: joasnebe.art
Instagram: @joas.nebe