The fluid and ethereal interplay of time and space defines the creative narrative of multidisciplinary artist Janine Thüngen-Reichenbach (Monaco, 1964), based in Rome since 2000. Janine’s artistic research is multifaceted and ever-evolving. She creates works in many sizes, using a variety of mediums ranging from bronze, washi paper, clay, glass and water, and even plants: from small to monumental sculptures and from sound to land art installations. Works imbued with deep philosophical and scientific references, her vision is inspired by the vivid contrasts in humankind and nature: a dance of concave and convex forms, airiness and thickness, emptiness and fullness.

Cultivating a long-term fascination with the relation between the past and present, Janine moves her focus into the pre-Christian catacombs of Domitilla and San Callisto below her house, to search for otherworldly stories. This research led her to create a series of works resulting from a complex and long process, according to which she takes silicon impressions of the ancient walls of the Roman catacombs, to obtain unique double-sided matrices to be used for casting in bronze or creating washi paper artworks.

In the process of creation, the artist merges the negative and positive sides allowing the coincidence of space and time in a single membrane that simbolically joins past, present and future in a unique creation of physical continuity. As in the case of the elongated DNA sculptures, these works show a texture reminiscent of the surface of meteorites carrying a universal meaning of the precariousness of life. Janine’s approach follows a concept of sculpture in which the dimensions of space and time are intertwined with the notions of extension and motion, imagining another direction beyond length, width and depth and entering thus the fourth dimension.

Her artworks feature a light and organic movement, alongside an earthy and compact texture, reflecting their intrinsic bond with the ground. Her effort in dematerializing the sculpture gives discontinuity to the matter and a perception of lightness and motion. As an impressionist sculptor, Janine embraces the lesson of the renowned modern artist Medardo Rosso to render sculpture ephemeral through the changing effects of light. Thus in her creations, she looks for distortions, unexpected movements and angles that challenge the viewer’s perception of a solid sculpture.