CATHARSIS
Colour
If you wake me up in the middle of the night and ask what the most important thing for me in art is, without thinking I will answer - colour.
When I experience a strong emotion, I simultaneously experience colour in my body. Therefore, colour is something that communicates with me directly and extremely strong.
In my final Critical Review for the Painting 2 course I explored the meaning of synaesthesia for art. (could be found here https://www.marinawittemann.com/post/the-critical-review-synaesthesia-meaning-for-art) My conclusion was that from the mere mention of synaesthesia, people do not understand what it is. And why is it important or at least somehow interesting. Therefore, this phenomenon does not help to create more understandable works. But it's a great addition to my aesthetic colour tastes. At the same time, I have always been fascinated by Rothko's paintings, but now, when I make my colour fields, I like them more. This is due to the fact that my colour is not flat, and it changes with light and room conditions. This fills it with even more shades and there is a physical moment of immersion in colour due to looking at these villi on the surface of the work.
Homeland (Родина), 2021, paint, spray colours, paper on canvas, 145 x 225 (75 x 75 x 75) x 7 cm.
I discovered my synaesthesia while working on the painting "Motherland". A big emotion and longing for my mother evoked red feelings in me, which is why this triptych arose.
Abyss, 2022, recycled newspapers, acrylic paints, plaster, water-based fixatives, cardboard, wood, 157 x 95 x 13 cm.
Over the course of two and a half years, I improved the composition of paints and materials so that the works were not so fragile. Although, to be honest, it even suited me. The work was the same as me - outwardly created from colour, powerful in energy, but not able to survive in the real world. Fragility was part of the story and part of the work. But commercial galleries complained about the difficulties in transportation and one of them terminated the contract with me, accusing me of low-quality art. Then the question arose either to submit to the commercial component and adapt the works for sale, or to continue to make my colour-fields as I intended them, but then why create more if I can’t show or exhibit them to anyone in the gallery.
Currently I make stronger all sides of artworks with a special eco-friendly compound that I order from the Netherlands. This does not make the work as a stone, but the excessive fragility goes away.
Portrait of a noble person, 2022, paint, spray colours, plaster, paper on canvas, 93 x 72 x 9 cm.
I also started ordering individual frames, the standard ones did not fit, and I had to look for someone who could and wanted to supply these necessary additions for me. Frames change the meaning of works. They limit the colour. According to my original idea - the colour-field exists in space and absorbs it through the protruding "fibres". It's like sensitive papillae on the tongue - they perceive the light, atmosphere and mood of the viewer and change it.
Size of the colour
It is also worth noting especially the size of these fields. The biggest one I did was about 2 meters and it's just amazing. When you stand next to such work, you get the feeling of complete immersion in it. This is a colour ecstasy and direct communication through a visual image directly with the soul.
Homeland, 2022, paint, spray colours, plaster, paper on canvas, 106 x 126 x 9 cm.
For example, take one of my red works. This is part of a large installation. There are hidden lines here, which in the imagination can create certain images. Such a contemplating through one overwhelming colour enriches the experience of perception. My dream would be to recreate such a field in a size 6 by 6 meters (236 x 236 inch).
Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky created his films with the idea that in the process of watching, the viewer will take the position of the protagonist, live the story with him, and after the end of the film, he will be cleansed or reborn, as if rethinking his behaviour. Thus, a person becomes better, there is a psychological maturation and moral elevation. This is called catharsis.
Mark Rothko also meant a similar moral rebirth and purification only through the colour field. He built a special chapel where, according to his plan, the viewer, like in a church, could plunge into pure spiritual communication with colour. This approach of both artists is very close to me and I would stop there, explore the effect of colour on a person (there is no exact data on the effect of colour, see my research here https://www.marinawittemann.com/post/project-2-audience-engagement-epiphany-and-communion-through-the-brutal-journey-of-the-heart ).
But something stops me, something tells me that the colour field is not enough to communicate with every non-artist. On the one hand, the viewer must be prepared to understand such abstract works, and on the other hand, the colour spot, one way or another, whether you understand it or not, will interact with the viewer. Or I don’t start deepening into colour analysis because I haven’t tried the full potential and variations of this technique yet?!
One project that I find particularly exciting is the creation of a theatre stage with my colour palettes. Here theatre or performance would introduce a narrative and explain or deepen the feelings of the audience.
LIVING LIFE THROUGH ART
Process of work
Not only the work of art itself fascinates me, but also the process of the birth of an idea and its implementation.
How is an idea born? These are most often sketches and samples occur in my head. It can be a flash of specific colour hue that excites me and demands to be realized in physical world. For example, the idea "behind the fence". It came from a rhetorical discourse about the condition of people in Russia and a reference to my childhood when I was painting a fence as a child. This is how green sticks (a colour from childhood) appeared, made up in the form of a wooden fence, and behind them my colour field. These images are clearly presented in my mind, and I am invariably interested to see how it will look in physical world. This is exactly the state that motivates me to work. I'm just burning with curiosity and desire to make this thing. I know that there will be technical problems in fixing the sticks, or exposing the overall heavy construction, and it's also insanely inspiring.
I have always wanted to change the world for the better. Well, you understand?! I mean I was striving to create such work from which a person would rethink his actions and become better, kinder, more merciful, would understand that aggression is not an option, would love life in the end. But with the war, everything lost its sense to me. My beloved and dear mother (like father, sister, close friends...) support the war against Ukraine. This inconsistency with my reality prompted me to simply hide in my studio and live my small, temporary life. I realized that I could not even influence the most precious person I had. She refused to hear my arguments that there were no Nazis in Ukraine, and no one was going to attack Russia, and that Russian culture (before the war) was loved and respected, and that people with a different orientation (gay, lesbian...) are normal, and to recognise this does not mean of the decay of society. After my analysis of whether I, as an artist, can do something to change this situation (see here https://www.marinawittemann.com/post/critical-review-contemporary-art-killing-the-inner-fascist "Contemporary Art, Killing The Inner Fascist" - the final essay for the course on Sculpture 2) I completely lost all hope. Therefore, I began to treat my art as my personal, private, and individual experience of living my temporary life and that’s it.
While painting each of these sheets of paper, I kind of really live.
The monotonous repetition of the same action is fascinating. It's like a colour meditation where with each new piece of paper, I'm looking for the right colour. Sometimes I mix up to four colours to get the right shade and this "kneading" is very special moment. A huge number of sheets of paper for me is like many days of life. How many days in life do we enjoy? How many lost days or days in pain? My works with millions of painted sheets is a portrait of my life... it is spent days, minutes and seconds in work.
After the work is "assembled" and the first coat of paint has dried, I start working with the final colour. It's a big and dusty (cos of spray colours) work that gives me a sense of scale. Why and how, I don’t know, but I feel at this moment that I am doing something meaningful that is receiving, right at this moment, independent life from me.
I once used a different paper for work and definitely missed that "sense of colour" in my hands. It was copper-coated paper. The final work was shiny and more like a pop-art object than my carefully crafted and complex colour compositions. But this experience keeps me coming back to it, but I can't find the right materials or colours yet.
I even tried real sheets of thin copper and, of course, such work gives more opportunities, for example, to do work outdoors and let the material change from the effects of nature, but I still cannot afford the cost of such work for the sake of experiment.
ECOLOGY OF MIND
In addition, an important aspect of my work is environmental friendliness. Not that I'm an avid vegetarian, I eat meat, although I understand how meat is produced and how much and how cows are killed. By ecology, I mean using materials for recycling whenever possible and not creating more dirt on this planet. It is rather a global "pure" thinking in relation to oneself and to the world around.
I use newspapers. At first it was a need - during the lockdown, I ran out of all the materials and had to work with what I had. But after the war, newspapers became a symbol of propaganda. Since in Russia these mass media zombified the population of the country and presented only one point of view. It also became obvious to me that ecology is primarily a way of thinking. Starting from not throwing a plastic bag into the forest to not accepting war and aggression.
Through the newspapers, I felt like I was conveying the message of recycling and sustainability. But then I noticed that viewers do not always associate this with sustainable art, even for some the value of my work was lost when they found out that these were recycled newspapers. But on the other hand, there were those who were first attracted and intrigued by colour, and then they were delighted with the idea of sustainability and recycling. This is where I will stop, this reaction I like.
After realizing that there are people who support military action, I began to think about the importance of critical thinking and the ability of a person to look at problems from different angles. In Kinetic art, artists provoked a person to move around the object. They changed the colour and meaning of the work depending on the position of the person. I modified this experience and made the person move physically to see a different colour of the work.
So, on the right, a person will see a blue colour, and on the left, a red colour. However, this is an advanced version of the "6 and 9 point of view" example, since here another image appears when the viewer simply stands in front of the work and sees all the colours at once. Here I see an incredible field for ideas, doubts, and research, since the problem of 6/9 perspective itself is not unambiguous, since both people can be wrong.
This is from the point of view of theory, and in the technical part, I developed a project for such a changing work "Ecology of Mind" for the course "Sculpture 2" on the wall of the house, but did not implement it because of the endless rains. (More info here https://www.marinawittemann.com/post/parallel-project-through-the-relational-aesthetics-to-the-individual-ecology-of-mind )
I even thought about a social project where I would attract people, already for the current course "Advanced Practice", I began to work on this idea further, which I will write about separately.
The idea of this project was to recycle newspapers through physical work with hands and talk about how we can remain independent thinkers and develop critical thinking.
Project: The Wawe, 2022, wood, cardboard, hardboard, paper for recycling (scavenge) and paints, colours, 350 x 1300 x 200 cm.
AESTHETICS
My sculptural compositions are especially fruitful for me. Experimenting with all possible materials in the learning process, I realized that I like to solve problems and find not typical solutions. This process looks like this, for example, I see an interesting piece of wood or a remnant of a metal structure, and my brain seems to complete this beginning. If a piece (object) has already attracted me, then it is interesting for me to look at its development - I just start working and make decisions on form, composition, colour already in the process. I liked the theory of the origin of "allure" in the philosophy of Graham Harman, explaining how objects are attracted to each other (here a person is also an object) (written here: https://www.marinawittemann.com/post/project-2-body-of-work-aesthetic-choice ). I talked about how I collect "objects with potential" in the sawmills or just buy materials in the shops for the builders.
Each of my works was, as it were, the consideration of one issue. For example, the sun with rays that do not shine, but pretend.
A Sound Of Thunder, 2021, wood, paper, screws, paint, metal mesh, polyurethane foam, plastic, 49 х 27 х 55 cm.
Or a balance that is not quite a balance.
Balance, 2021, wood, paper, paint, adhesive tape, plaster, rope, cardboard, 109 x 50 x 18 cm.
A parasite that is especially delightful with the change in scenery around it.
Parasite, 2022, recycled wires, newspapers, plastic; paint, construction foam, plaster, 100 x 85 x 40 cm.
Some of the work we did in collaboration with OCA Photographs. It was a reflection of their story about street art photography and a simple reflection on a particular photo. I found it much easier to reflect on someone else's work than to create your own.
On the streets, 2023, recycled wood, cardboard, newspapers; acrylic paint, screws, glue, 37 x 48 x 21 cm.
Rack, 2023, recycled wood, fur; acrylic paint, screws, plaster, 73 x 53 x 39 cm.
Many of the works are interactive, I involve a viewer to interact with the works. Light a candle or hit metal to make a sound.
Altar of Materiality, 2021, wood, paper, nails, screws, paint, varnishes, rope, sheepskin, wire, the face of St. Matrona of Moscow, candle, 56L x 58H x 23D cm.
Sound of loneliness, 2022, metal mesh, wood, plywood, paint, sand, canvas, cardboard, screws, metal rod.
The experiments of translating my works into electronic format did not inspire me. Here I made an important conclusion that without the physical sensation of doing the work, I do not get such pleasure. Digital work is not stable for me and, as it were, does not exist.
Video of the digital work: https://youtube.com/shorts/95mTjAk1sWQ
Even projections and combination with physical elements did not inspire me.
The Winged Victory, 2020, plaster, acrylic, video projection, blacklight lamp, 120H x 100W x 14D cm
Here, probably, it is important to provide independence to the completed object. I love seeing these sculptures in their finished form standing in the room. Every time I see them, I discover new aspects of these works, or through these works I analyse my life situations.
In addition, I was interested in the issue of beauty, I tried to apply Kant's theory and its interpretation, but it turned out to be very confusing and not that in the end I was very worried about it. I simply agreed that I have my own inner sense of beauty and aesthetics, and all my work meets this inner requirement. (written here: https://www.marinawittemann.com/post/reflections-i-can-think-taste-christian-bau ).
But beauty and morally good for me relate to the general enjoyment of the world and life, which is opposed to war. I hoped to understand how one and the same person can feel beauty and enjoy the sublime and at the same moment approve of aggression and war in Ukraine.
*** *****
I don't know what to call this section of my important remarks. But today this is perhaps what can be traced in all my works. This is not an understanding of the approval of the war by my relatives and acquaintances.
Recycled newspapers have now changed for me from environmental issues to news recycling. This rethinking of news interests me in terms of how TV, newspapers, friends, and events shape our opinion.
Why does a person begin to believe in something, close up and cannot even try to look at the problem from the other side.
Once, for commercial purposes, I made a video explaining my work.
https://youtu.be/w8EBos0nGMs movie explaining the work
Strange as it may seem, I really liked this experience, I began to study the ideas and methods of work of Andrei Tarkovsky, Wes Anderson, Lars von Trier and other directors who in one way or another resonate with me.
I thought that if most people are "sitting" on the Internet, why don't they show short reels, but not in the context of selling a product or a set of large subscriptions, but in terms of achieving catharsis.
I have such thoughts simply because only a limited number of people will be able to see my physical works. Moreover, it will be in Europe where there is not such a large number of Putin's supporters. But in social networks there are still a lot of those people who are on the other side.
At home, 2023, recycled wood, metal, concrete, burlap, copper-coated paper, cardboard, newspapers; acrylic paint, sand, screws, nails, 63 x 72 x 66 cm.
My works devoted to the themes of war receive extremely negative reviews.
Untitled, 2022, installation with objects and TV
Ordinary viewers do not understand why to build the remnants of the church from the boards, or spoil my colour fields with destroyed elements.
Untitled, (detail of installation Tower, Sacrarium, Fake) 2022, installation with objects and TV
For me, it's like training the perception of the viewer. If a person can finally build associations or read my message in art, then I hope this will be a small step towards his perception of "other" things, and not just traditional ones.
Political work project. My color fields made from Russian newspapers in destroyed buildings in Ukraine.
Through provocation, but not repulsive one, I probably hope to sharpen the perception of the viewer. Remove his stereotypes and challenge standards.
Tree of Knowledge, 2020, plaster, wood, leaves, golden paint,hot glue, sheepskin, 77H x 78L x 40W cm.
I don't like incomprehensibility in modern art. For example, you go into the gallery and without prior preparation, reading the explanations, you cannot understand what it is about. Or a piece of paper is pinned on the wall with the conclusions of the artist's two years of work, but there is no object. The essence of visual art, as I understand it, is to communicate through a visual image. If you are going to watch a movie in a gallery, it is cinema; if you have to read numerous sheets of paper, it is literature. Therefore, without an attractive and intriguing object, it is impossible to form the interest and curiosity of the viewer. Thus, I am interested in the balance between accessibility, sophistication and intelligence.
Work No 3, 2021, wood, paper, scotch tape, nails, construction foam, paint, varnishes, colours, 50 H x 26 D x 30 W cm.
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