Tidevarv

I have been searching for traces of time in my surroundings: transience and eternity in people and spaces, and a sense of temporality in the relationships between them. I’ve been thinking about those tense moments in between, when something has just happened or is about to happen – that sense of unease which is at once so familiar and yet so hard to describe. Time is felt most keenly in the morning and in the evening – that is, at the beginning and the end, before or after, while waiting, while fearing that time will run out, and sometimes in fading memories you can no longer fully catch. When observing temporality, it is inevitable to view oneself from the same perspective.

The paintings feature recurring urban spaces in which signs from different eras and a dialogue between the traces left by humankind and nature can be seen everywhere. The works juxtapose the temporal dimensions of figurative and abstract elements: the transience of a shadow cast by a person set against an ancient street; street art, ephemeral by its very nature, in the unmoving stone; a constantly fading memory of something you imagined to be permanent. Gathering material is an essential part of the creative process: it requires determined yet aimless wandering, conscious presence and a sensitive perceptiveness.

In these works, an observational practice intertwines with colour choices and a visual language springing from memories. The tangibly layered, thick brushwork is comparable to the delicacy of the very first brushstrokes and thus reflect layers of time. At times, the pictorial surfaces fracture and spatiality become distorted. Addressing the moments surrounding change has naturally guided the colour palette in an indefinite, muted direction.