Sleepwalking 2020

Jana Brike's painting titled, Sleepwalking, presents a square canvas dominated by the back view of a girl adorned with a floral crown. Her long braid, tied with a delicate lace, extends down her back, drawing our eye from the crown to the horizon. The falling stars and their watery reflections introduce us to an uncanny liminal space. Brike uses the figure's vulnerability, combined with the open horizon, to challenge conventional understandings of innocence and exposure. The formal qualities of the work—particularly the contrast between the soft, warm tones of the figure and the cool, ethereal blues of the sky—highlight a tension between the earthly and the transcendental. The composition, almost symmetrical, invites a structuralist reading, where each element serves as a sign within a carefully constructed visual language. Through such formal manipulation, Brike transcends mere representation, offering a meditation on the self, nature, and the precariousness of beauty.