works on paper

Working on paper has provided me with new techniques and brought new elements into my perspective as artist. Experimenting with ink broadened my understanding and usage of color. Colors are not merely conceived of as representational elements. Working with different media and viscosities creates a multilingualism that I like to make use of.

controlled uncontrollability, ink on transparency paper

First of all, I´d like to talk a little bit about the intriguing quality of the ink in using it together with alcohol and water. What I admire about the process in mixing the three mediums is the ripping apart of the ink, leaving only traces and sometimes only particles that remind us of the opaqueness and thickness and the certain viscosity of the ink. I like its oily flowing and floating on the surface. Letting it react with water diminishes its greasiness. Hazy and misty streams appear on the surface and create most exciting streams. An atmosphere is created that is immediate and intentional and at the same time it allows for casual and incidental movements.

I make use of this simultaneity of intention and incident which for me is a most common feature in our daily experiences. I would call this controlled uncontrollability. We all know these moments and instances where we set out with a certain goal or intention and the next thing we know is that everything turned out quite differently. We are often struggling with these situations, we fear to lose control, to let things get out of hand. We are scarcely able to show enough flexibility in coping with the unexpected.

Tension grows due to the gap between what we have originally expected and the actual outcome of the situation. This is the point that I am most interested in. As an artist I like to play with the insecurities and idiosyncrasies that come to life when we find ourselves in such crunching circumstances.

In asking myself why these ink paintings look like they do the current pieces of art present us with the idea of holding on to a certain state, evoking a sense of something that has been finished, finalized, concluded. At the same time, we can still recognize an urge of the ink to flow that translates into streams, rivers and spheres that appear on the paper. Juxtaposed to these are spaces that seem to be empty, that hold a void or streaks that have been eradicated by some invisible hand. There are line crossings, breaches and cracks, a fundamental evanescence of the boundaries within the sphere of relations. Presence and absence exist in their own right, the process leads us into a mental landscape that confronts us with the inability to calculate or anticipate in the face of a deep wish for predictability. There are fragmentary instances of mark making and steering the inky liquid into a certain materialization upon the surface of the paper that is not prone to disseminate or dissolute by the alcohol.

The role that I am playing in creating these ink works is to stage each element by giving direction, by helping to unfold the scenes, by cautiously holding the different threads of the creative idea. I intend to juxtapose presence and absence, the energy of the flowing motion serving as the power that faces diffusion only leaving traces. Those traces and particles underlie no common gestalt or form. Imagery of shifting borders of experiences arises, the intentionality versus the flow and the messiness provide the nurturing categories, resonating with doubt and being full of life.

subconscious decisions

“subconscious decisions”

mixed media on paper

18″ x 24″

2017

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Mini series “have you ever…?”

“have you ever?”

ink on paper in wooden frame 4×4″

2017

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“brush strokes”

this series explores not only into the gestural depth of what ink as a medium offers, it tries to magnify the boundaries of the paper by allowing only partial view of the gesture as a whole. by painting outside of the paper and letting ink, water and rubbing alcohol interact up to a certain point where I decide to press the paper on to the medium I finally create a print of the process. I intentionally choose what is printed and what is left out, thus also giving room for a void. a void that keeps bleeding on the worktable only to be revisited for the next piece. so the,re is in the end a potential to become visible, to play a role, to have a significance in another instance. the singular pieces are depending on each other, are part of each other.

“brush strokes”