Artwork
"SPACES: The Natural Restingplace of Suchness"
After a three month retreat in silence and seclusion in the Himalayas these pictures were pouring out of me.
I have used many different layers and techniques to attempt to make ”space” visible although this is not really possible. Matte surfaces are used to make as little reflections of light as possible on the ”space” I am trying to make visible, and they are mounted in a way that doesn’t really show on a photo: the background is canvas and the actual picture is sitting on top, raised a few centimeters to make the eye associate to seeing something that is not really there; like a hole without being a hole. I wanted it to look as if the background was showing the motif. The edge of the ”space” on each painting is guilded or in silver (very messy work to do in a small apartment, I had gold and silver flakes all over the place…).
There is a text that belongs as a reading with these pictures,
CLICK HERE to read the text.
A group of large bowls is meant to complete the experience, but although I have tried I am not skilled enough to make bowls the size I want for this project. Only an experienced potter can make them.
The bowls should be in colors corresponding to the paintings and in the bottom have sentences like
”Filled with Space”, ”Filled with Friendliness”, ”Filled with Trust”, ”Filled with Love” …; like holding space for whatever is needed. If I find a potter that can help me they still might happen!
"ON A WEIRD SURFACE"
These paintings are made on a very unusual sort of material: a rest product from lignine in the paper industry.
It is rather thick and paper-like, but the fibres don't stick together like ordinary paper. I was given a whole bunch of these papers by a friend who had worked in the paper industry in northern Sweden. I experimented a lot with it.
They required a whole new technique since the surface is so fragile, not a single brush stroke can be done without it dissolving. So I splashed and sprayed on the paint, working with stencils for the letters and also with some stamps that I could just press right down on the paper without destroying it. It was not possible to make any corrections. I then sealed the surface with several layers of different sorts of laquer, this makes the pictures feel like objects, a little sculptural and not flat.
MISCELLANEOUS -
Click each painting for more info
MANY THANKS TO THE PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO HELPED ME CAPTURE THE ARTWORK:
Elvira Lagerström Dyrssen elviralagerstrom.se/ - Denise Westin www.denizen.se/ - Arno Scherzberg - Martin Gustavsson