The Search For Lightness

FLOW

Paint that I steer over my canvas creates dozens of light, semitransparent layers of wild dynamic forms. This is my experiment of finding a balance between being in control of an artwork and letting the liquid media flow freely. Flow started as an investigational journey of new techniques. It was the time when, through my experimentation in various directions of contemporary visual art, I encountered astonishing visual effects of layers and translucency of ink over various surfaces. During the process, I restricted my colour vocabulary to Indian ink, which comes through in all works of this series as soft-edged abstractions.

In these works, the structure of layers becomes the main point of aesthetic merit. Liquid paint and fabric allowed me to focus on the technique rather than on my brushstrokes. It enabled me to paint freely and permit myself to go with the flow. As a result, I managed to establish a style of my ink works that gave a distinct touch to the whole series when I let the ink flow but, at the same time, carefully controlled it with a hair dryer, creating peculiar silhouettes.

Even though the ideas of these works came off intuitively, the process of making them took a lot of planning and decision-making. Various graphic organic forms were carefully created and layered over each other, bringing to light multiple depths of grays over the translucent satin surface. My technique became more methodological in using the hair dryer as well, when I’d catch the movement and change or reverse it, creating complex contours of light grays.

In the experimentation with silk and silk dyes, I finally found what I was looking for — the contrast of dynamic monochromatic compositions and the soft surface, authentic expression in a traditional medium.

“Experimentation is the quest for answers.”

— Paul Rand

In my search for lightness and movement, I continued exploring how to make these stretched silk canvases become the opposite of stillness; how to make them support the flow of the ink. This is when I started deconstructing the silk surfaces, leaning on the weaving process in the opposite way.

Eventually, there was an installation of a painting on silk, when not the painting but only its impression was left imprinted onto silk threads. This installation is a creative decomposition of itself that lets out the energy that’s been contained in the silk canvas through dynamic layered compositions of ink, casting shadows and creating new images on the walls around.

Reflected in the barely perceptible trembling of threads, an elusive motion of life is slowed down by the constant gravity. It’s a fleeting memory of the past, a promise of a better future, engaged with the moment.

“I am of an age where I know what I like and what I do not like. What I like , I enjoy enormously. What I dislike, I cannot abide.”

— Agatha Christie

LANTERNS

Lanterns symbolize the inner light that guides us through periods of darkness. They encourage us to find our inner strength by illuminating our life journey in the world. I find this symbolic meaning reflects the current times we live in.

Lanterns is a group of silk artworks with hand-painted silk objects, depicting the shapes of lanterns. Delicate silk objects capture the light, creating gleaming effects and moving slightly when a person passes nearby, as if engaging with that person, inviting them to stop, pay attention and enjoy the moment.

Lanterns started as a series of abstract silk paintings I made on silk surfaces while experimenting with various tools, media, silk paints and natural plant dyes. During the process, I started analyzing how these abstract paintings that I create relate to the shape of the silk canvases and their edges, which led me to explore other less-conventional formats and moved me out of two dimensions.

Similar to the process of my other silk work, I started deconstructing the silk surfaces, creating various objects from them. Silk surfaces became objects, a mass of geometric, yet soft, abstract forms. Gently moving in the shimmering rays of setting sunlight and in the breeze of my studio, these objects enchanted me with their lightness and beauty.

Despite the uncertain global times, it seemed as if the reality was transformed with its cheerfulness. As if they were inviting me into a harmonious world turned toward life. I wanted to capture this fleeting, almost elusive, moment to share its enthusiasm for life with others.

Eventually, my search for lightness resulted in a series of three-dimensional works that captured that exact moment — a delicate play of light flowing through the translucency of the silk threads, creating new dynamic abstract compositions full of life and harmony.

Through playing with the changing sunlight and their modest movement, airy and hopeful Lanterns brings a feeling of calmness within the continuous movement of life.

“There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really the sun coming up every day is a story everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.”

— Terry Pratchett