Calamondin

Ernst Yohji Jaeger's exhibition "Calamondin" at 5 & 7 rue de Beaune, Paris, explores themes of memory, transformation, and artistic process. The artist's reflections, prompted by a dream and the song "Diamonds and Rust," frame his paintings as a dialogue between "rust" (time, decay, external pressures) and "diamond" (consciousness, permanence, inner truth). Jaeger views the act of painting as a struggle against external demands, a process of "death" that allows for the birth of new, unexpected creations.

The exhibition features works inspired by myths and personal experiences, such as the phoenix and the whale, which Jaeger interprets as "objective structures of reality." The titular calamondin tree, which recovered from near death while Jaeger worked on the exhibition, serves as an observation on growth and cultivation, mirroring the development of his paintings from confused desire to concentrated experience. The works themselves are characterized by a unique pictorial and narrative density, with some dissolving figuration into abstraction, reflecting the artist's focus on the medium of paint itself.