ABHIDNYA GHUGE | STREAMING
My work is centered on a broader perspective of the value of human life, dignity of labor and the power of people to come together to create change. Within this concept, I bring focus to the female life, its disposability, fragility and power. The humble white paper plate is my material of choice for large scale installations and sculptural works, while ink and watercolor/gouache is used to created highly detailed drawings. These drawings explore the intricate relationships, personalities, and portraits of women who have faced hardships, difficulties and experienced victories in a male dominated society. As a first-generation immigrant to the US, I have experienced a drastic shift in my ideas of human disposability. I grew up in a culture where a female life lives in a dichotomous state of a doormat and a deity, a burden to the parents and an object to be traded, sold and exploited. I have witnessed circumstances where a woman has a voice, yet she cannot speak, she is sacrificial yet powerful enough to destroy and devastate. The process begins with hand carving a large-scale woodblock and printing thousands of white paper plates, sealing them and then creating an organic form that occupies and changes the space it resides in. I urge people to look at the form as it influences the space and creates new encounters. To think beyond the obvious form and explore the possibilities of simple paper plates - a metaphor for human life and mortality – coming together in large numbers, changing the space into a positive experience. The work of human hands is to be celebrated, encouraged and cultivated. The meticulous repetitive processes in my work is an offering to the dignity to human labor. In this sense, my work is a call to all humans to come together to create a positive change in the physical and psychological space.
ANDERS MOSEHOLM | WRONG MEMORY
When I look at reality I have a tendency to overlook the window I’m looking through. However, I find it interesting to be aware of this window. When I look my view is affected by emotions, irrational feelings, history, experience, memories, western culture, dreams etc. My paintings seem to contain layers of time in the way they function as reflections. They reflect that our past and imagination about the future affect us when we look at reality of contemporary time. My paintings function like a mental membrane trying to unify now/then and here/there.
My motifs of urban landscape and old baroque interiors have the intertwined, complex pattern in common. The patterns seduce my eyes to look closer and explore the labyrinthine architecture. The process makes me feel very present in the here and now although I look at motifs from the past.
Some thoughts of the German philosopher, Walter Benjamin, influenced me for this exhibition. Especially his thoughts about the past. He observes that when you look at ruins and things that are about to collapse or perish, it makes us aware of qualities we don’t want to lose. Makes us aware that we still want to have them in contemporary time now. This little moment, when we suddenly realize this, is very important for us in order to be able to see new possibilities for the future. ’Es hat Klick gesagt’. (which roughly translates to ‘it clicks’)
The dissolved, blurred historic motifs are not about a sentimental, nostalgic energy. On the contrary, it is an energy that wants to wake you up and open the window to the future.
A colleague of mine told me that my artwork was a kind of like a self-portrait of my old mind in contemporary time. Actually, I think if you could look into any mind of a human being, you would not see the inside of an IPhone but instead a mind full of memories, emotions and history that is not updated, but nevertheless, still inspired to find new possibilities for the future.
DAMIAN SUAREZ | THE SHAPE OF COLOR
Damian Suarez’s life has developed in different countries of Latin America after leaving his native Venezuela.
Chile, Argentina and Mexico currently represent the main cultural influences, from which it has developed a language that links their sense of belonging to the region, work discipline, scientific research and Op-art.
This work is to make optical art using strands of thread, tens of kilometers in each painting, the threads are wound onto the wood constructing fundamental geometric compositions, where the color and shape combining environment to generate optical illusions or color transitions to persuade be observed closely and discover the hundreds of thousands of strands of threads that are always part of something bigger and complex, as an emerging phenomenon.