Artist statement | Creating out of not knowing
Art making happens not only with my hands and eyes, but also with my ears, skin, gut, breath.
These paintings are psycho-geographic explorations — mapping the places I inhabit, both physically and emotionally. In a slow, performative process I serve as both an observer and a participant. Layer by layer; colour, sound and gesture accumulate. Without a predetermined narrative, each work evolves in direct response to its surroundings, weaving a dense tapestry that portrays a place, an experience, and a moment
in time.
My practice entails total immersion, utilizing the senses as artistic tools. It allows the edges between self and environment to become porous, which in turn, allows me to move beyond habitual boundaries. The process opens up a space — a liminal zone — where I can take the time to listen, consider and let go of fixed or familiar notions. I intentionally invite whatever is present to impact the creative decisions, and this facilitates the potential for something new to occur.
My fascination with change, with the immediate and the visceral, is deeply personal. Having teetered on the threshold between life and death at a young age, compelled me to explore dichotomies inherent in existence. It informed two major decisions in my life: working in diverse fields (the ‘white cubes’, the ‘streets’ and in nature), and merging both my practices (artistic and meditative) into a way of life, to become a nomad-artist.
The movement across continents, mediums and contexts, embraces a transient existence. My practice keeps me grounded. A flexible foundation through which I can investigate the meeting points between internal and external landscapes — revealing the frictions and pathways toward connection, balance, agency, release. Every new place drives the work and vice-versa. Each project acts as a temporary refuge and the “stage” where the fleeting takes shape. And while this process results in tangible artworks, the essence of it is performative. Art & Life exist in the very act of perceiving, of creating, and in the temporary nature of both.
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Technique & Breakdown of series over the years
My technique is mixed-media. I integrate fine-art and industrial materials and tools:
From tools typically used for building walls or floor tiles, to soft watercolor brushes, pallet knives, print rollers and metal scrapers.
Acrylic paints, inks and markers are mixed with various mediums such as glazing liquid, conditioner and silicone oil,
substances that impact the behavior of the pigments in unexpected ways. In the streets, I use hand cut letters and elements made with yarn, fabric, treated foam and duct-tape.
Early works:
In my time as a student, the early works ("Red Heart", 2007/8 and 2009) were naïve, minimalistic drawings.
Bodies and situations, subtle yet disturbing. Figures floating in white spaces.
After graduating and over time, extra layers appeared ("Illusions & Reality", 2010-2012 and 2013),
representing the struggle to grow and resolve past, present and future.
In these formative years, I practiced a slow Sisyphean process in which every piece took months. Then a change took place,
and my practice shifted into a quick, dance-like ritual. ("Release", 2014-2016). These paintings were done in one continuous session, each session lasting between a day to three days of constant work, stopping only for food and short stints of sleep.
The Serendipity Experiment 2017-2021
Between 2017 to 2021 I was immersed in an experimental performance, together with my partner in Mind The Heart! Project.
Our premise was to accept the unknown as an artistic tool, by committing fully to relinquishing control.
We followed the first rule of Improv theater - SAY YES. For this purpose, we donated all our belongings, moved to live in a van
in a foreign country, and invited strangers to dictate our route, schedule, and next encounters. At each point we were sent to, we created public works, daily. What was planned for one year ended up lasting four, spanning more than 60,000 miles (100,000 km) in 48 states across the U.S.A. as well as other countries.
The Unimaginable Horizon 2021- ongoing
Living on the road for four years (of which two in the pandemic), while committing to the totality which the performance necessitated, heralded another big shift in my process. Returning to a normative studio setting in late 2021 uncovered the tantalizing realization that previous inspirations and techniques now felt irrelevant. I couldn’t just pick up from where I left off.
The journey had fundamentally changed the way I perceived stability, home, possessions, necessity.
It altered the way I lived and subsequently, the way I created.
It felt crucial to allow the full breadth of my experiences to manifest directly onto the canvas, and these experiences were
too expansive to fit into figurative works, such as the ones I created before. My previous areas of research,
such as archetypes and mythologies, felt more like crutches than points of reference.
Free from the need to adhere to one "coherent" idea or to convey a comprehensible image,
an uninhibited expression was unleashed and with it, a flood of intuitive works.
Since 2021 I’ve painted over fifty abstract paintings. They represent a form of cartography –
to places familiar and unknown, to blocked paths and to new roads.
