Bjorn G. Amelan

Bjorn Amelan began to experiment with mark making on the antique hemp sheets, handwoven in farms in France, that his husband, Bill T. Jones, and he have been sleeping on. The very personal initial relation he had to these sheets and the discovery that their texture lent itself to sumi ink painting have made these a preferred medium. Their un-stretched, foldable, surfaces allow him to work on a large scale even while traveling, or in rehearsal studios, and hotel rooms. Once finished, the works are hung like tapestries allowing for the fabric’s weight, density and texture to be felt. It is this direct — unstretched and unglazed — experience of image and materiality that give these works monumentality.