A New Approach to Visual Art
Flowers are living beings that have their own character and voice. They change from moment to moment, and their delicacy makes their vision unique and irreproducible. As soon as you turn away, they have already transformed.
My art explores the concept of freezing the flower, capturing that ephemeral moment in a form that can be expressed without alteration, and then letting it follow its natural course of decay after thawing. This process involves uncertainty and unpredictability at every step: immersing the flowers in water, freezing the large water blocks, capturing the light and image of the frozen flowers with photography, painting and stitching the fabric pieces based on the photographs. The only certainty is the mapping of outlines to create a template for the fabric pieces, using the edges of the clothing as much as possible to align with the shapes.
The photographs are not manipulated or digitally processed in any way. I use only natural light and no flash, and I take only one photograph from a limited number of angles as the environment starts to melt the frozen piece. The flower is known, but the actual form is hidden, and the edges of the frozen shape introduce refraction and distortion as well as diffusing the captured flower.
All these elements create abstraction, but the mind naturally tries to make connections to past memories and knowledge, and the result may look like something familiar. For me, it evokes associations with my past works that are more figurative and fantastical. The images of the flowers, blurred and distorted by the ice they are encased in, become like fantasy images themselves, much like our memories that are often vague and inaccurate.
The pieces of clothing I use were never meant to be put together. The creation of the canvas was not easy, neither physically nor mentally, but it was an authentic representation of the time and point in my healing journey. To my surprise, the finished piece is a very calming and grounding experience. The colours were disturbing and uneasy for me when I was painting, but in the end, they reflect the natural world.
Creating fashion was a natural process for me, given my past. Instead of simply creating prints of the art piece, I take it full circle and create new, bespoke clothing, with the explicit agreement from the buyer that if they no longer want to have the piece, they will return it to me so that I can further repurpose the fashion.
I use gold leaf, influenced by kintsugi, on the seams of the disparate clothing pieces. This is a way of honoring the imperfections and the history of the materials, as well as adding a touch of beauty and elegance.
