Nicole Junkerman
On video
Nicole Junkerman: Art Begins With Looking Closely
In this short clip, Nicole Junkerman puts a simple idea at the centre of looking at art: begin by looking closely. Painting, sculpture and photography each ask for a different kind of attention, and each leaves its own trace.
Transcript
Art begins with looking closely. I follow exhibitions across Germany, Spain, France and the UK. Painting, sculpture and photography each leave a different trace. Look, understand, share.
Three key points
- Art begins with looking closely, before any reading or explaining.
- Painting, sculpture and photography each leave a different trace.
- A simple order helps with any exhibition: look, understand, share.
A note from the journal
Slow travel and slow looking are close relatives. Both reward the person who stays a little longer than planned, and both are easier to remember when a few lines go into the notebook afterwards. A single picture looked at properly for five minutes usually gives more than a whole room walked through at speed. Nicole Junkerman's three words at the end of this clip make a useful order for any exhibition: look, understand, share. Looking comes first and costs nothing. Understanding can come later, from a book or a conversation. Sharing is the part a journal does well, in a sentence or two about what stayed with you and why. Kept that way, a notebook becomes a quiet record of the art that mattered, rather than a list of everything seen.
The other short films sit on the Nicole Junkerman home page, beside the latest reading and travel notes.