6th International Watercolour Biennial Baltic Bridges 2016:Challenges and Directions
Solo exhibition by Maria Schleiner (Germany), the grand prix winner of the 5th International Watercolour Biennial Baltic Bridges 2014: Resonances Arts Faculty of Kaunas Collegium, J. Vienozinskis Arts faculty A.Mackeviciaus str. 27, Kaunas, Lithuania
Maria Schleiner eröffnet im Rahmen ihres Praxissemesters im WS 16/17 die Ausstellung Paradise – in construction. am 13.10.2016 in der Faculty of Arts of Kaunas College in Kaunas, Litauen. Die Ausstellung ist Teil der 6th International Watercolour Biennial Baltic Bridges 2016. Auf der 5th Baltic Bridges Biennale, 2014, erhielt Maria Schleiner den GRAND PRIX und wird für ihre künstlerische Arbeit durch die Einzelausstellung auf der diesjährigen Biennale gewürdigt. Farbige, abstrakte Arbeiten auf unterschiedlichen Papieren loten die Möglichkeiten der Form- und Farbsprache aus. Sie bestimmen als klein- und großformatige Formationen den jeweiligen Raum. Die kleinen, farbigen Papierobjekte und Papierarbeiten bilden je ein Ensemble, changierend zwischen abstrakter Formgebung und gegenständlichen Assoziationen. Spielerisches, meditatives Arbeiten verbunden mit konzeptuellen Prozessen künstlerischer Arbeit führt zu ästhetisch vielfältigen Ergebnissen. Die Ausstellung Paradise – in construction. findet in der Fakultät der Künste statt, die nach Justinas Vienožinskis benannt ist, dem Gründungsvater der Kunsthochschule in Kaunas.
Paradise – in construction.
To follow the appearance of things in nature and on the paper engenders a special space in the time created by a calm but concentrated atmosphere of being.
Trailing with the eyes the lines of tree branches and seeing the many ways of their evolvement leads the hand to imaging modalities. Fast and without hesitating commotions of lines and dots, curves and figures are built up on big sized papers. While the work is filled with the movement of many graphic and pictorial elements, it is not meant to assert or to declare; it is supposed rather to be and to remain at once an echo of the plants like they arise and a network of brushstrokes on the paper. To underline this ambiguity the colour appears reduced in different shades of light grey, brown, green. Coincident will be accepted and conceptually embedded. Ledger lines and haphazardly created dots of ink lead to the concept of the design. Gum arabic is used as the vehicle and binder of the watercolour ink. Since it is prepared freshly and partly mixed with other colouring components like the soil it leads to interesting ways of drying on the paper. The finished works are not necessarily presented as single works of art. Instead they might also be covering the walls of the exhibition rooms and may be crawling all over the space, so the viewer may follow the lines and forms expanding over the wall and ceiling. (“Untitled”,2015/16, watercolour, varied in size)
Following with the eyes the lines the brushstroke is leaving on the paper many forms and figures emerge, which are later cut out. Non-representational little objects arise. Their little paper jetties indicate the size of the paper they had been created on. They are combined to installation fields. It gets to be an assemblage of broken bits consisting of vulnerable coloured forms of paper. Shadows and slightly movements of the paper objects complete the impression.
(“Brandenburg, Cumlosen” 2015, watercolour, invisible thread, each object varies in size, ca. 14 x 19 cm)
Tracking with the eyes how the hand is moving over the thin paper in repetitive movements a geometrical pattern of lines and dots evolves. The repeating procedure builds a calm atmosphere of contemplation, a safe haven for the being. It is a constructed paradise. In further procedures the thin paper gets folded and perforated. With scissors some of the forms are cut out but they all find their way back to the emerging work. It is an amusing game of relocation. A play unfolds putting some forms together to piles, stacks, scattering to new regimes. The initially created geometric figures are mixed with scriptural or graphic forms of order. The holes indicate the missing forms and the spectator is asked to unfold the game in front of his/her mental imagery. (“Acquapendente”,2015 / 16, each 35 x 23 cm or 23 x 35 cm)
