Jasper Rouwen explores extraordinary experiences through paintings, performances, video and installations. Moments such as discovering a trapped bird in a DIY store, finding a ‘follow your heart’ sign on a tree, or witnessing a couch unexpectantly fall out a window act as traces and symbols of a mystery, and are at the centre of his work. By creating windows into a fictional world, questioning our interpretation of the strange in our everyday lives.

 

Throughout his time at the residency Jasper aims to explore a moment he experienced in the New Forest, where he discovered a brown horse standing by the porch of a large white house, completely blocking the door, and trapping the residents inside their house. Jasper intends to use this moment as a foundation from which he will explore the intangible boarders that exist between the different inhabitants of the New Forest National Park. By engaging with the local community, he will seek to learn how they deal with these comical moments of ‘mundane madness’, where horses block doors and show up for breakfast. 

 

Born and raised in Kent, Jasper moved to the Netherlands in 2018 to start his BA at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, where he graduated in 2022, since then he has continued to live and work as an independent artist in Amsterdam. In 2022, together with Emile Weisz, Jasper co-founded ‘suzi’, a curatorial initiative centred around exhibiting contemporary and experimental artists. They’ve curated 3 shows, with the next due to take place in September 2023.