the new black VII

art, teaching

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The basic theme still being the one of light and darkness, we have during this very last week been working with constellations of words and images; reading aloud the runes of Kalevala in the morning, listening to the tale of virgin Marjatta… where pagan and Christian motifs together form a Heraclitian bow.

In this further processing, we make use also of graphic techniques: dry etching on plastic sheets and printing from linoleum and wood cuts.

The suggestion has been to find images originating from one’s own reception of passages in the text, though not necessarily illustrative; to find out ways to benefit from the printing process itself; and to make a choice of at least five pictures with some kind of inner coherence – to which the students have answered in an excellent manner.

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students’ prints

Mark Rothko at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome

art

holding a rose petal in sunlightRothko in blacknotes and rose petals

Arriving in Rome by noon on Tuesday and leaving early Wednesday morning, my very first meeting with Rothko lasted for six hours. Apart from the survey provided by this exhibition spanning almost four decades of his work, I did connect to three of the paintings. Could’ve been many, were my perceptivity boundless… but it is not. So I stayed with these: one yellow on red painted in 1956; one black; and the last one, dated 1970, black and grey.

Each one a singularity, by no means reproducible.

Two of them loaded with presence embodied in paint; the third opening into the abyss, essentiated to horizon.

Colour breathing through the eye, unceasingly transforming. Hold on, let go. Let go.

The act of seeing inmost intimacy, eating and drinking of the soul.


the new black V; advent theme

art, teaching

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Here are a few photos from the Kristofferus church, where some of the black-and-white drawings can be seen for the weeks to come. Twelve gold plated squares, crafted by Sigrid Winkler, were hung above eyelevel on the curved inner wall of the foyer. The sequence was echoed in a series of small drawings, arranged in groups of five or six and forming a rhythmized horizon lower down along the extension of the same wall. Yet another sequence of larger pictures mirrored that imaginary line from the flat opposite wall.

The material transforms into a theme – one out of the many inherent – answering to a specific site in time and space.

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