Uta Feinstein's Art
Artist
Statement
Experiences
relating to ‘interconnectedness’ – personal, social/political,
ecological, digital, art historical - as well as questions of
uncertainty and ambiguity have influenced my works. The net serves as a
vehicle to explore these relationships through the lens of painting.
The associative potential and metaphorical connotations of the net
interplay with formal enquiry. Shifting tensions arise from dynamic
interactions between contrasting formal components - chromatic, tonal
or spatial switches, geometric elements or fluid/organic lines. Forces
pull in different directions. Tension and release or ensuing
fragmentation reflect various states of being or a response to current
events. Intertwinement of opposing elements also raises questions about
our entanglement with each other, the digital world and with the world
surrounding us.
The net is a flexible version of the grid, a
‘grid gone haywire’, liberated from the rigid structure. However, the
net’s amorphous character and malleability make it difficult to predict
which state it will adopt, and there is an ambiguity over whether it
plays a positive or a negative role. It can entrap or protect, save
life or destroy it (e.g. safety nets, fishing nets’ ‘bycatch’, the
internet & social media, networking), reflecting its
unpredictability.
Captured and suspended in pictorial space, the
net appears still and frozen in time, leaving it to the viewer to
imagine its flow or shape ‘before’ or ‘afterwards’, and which
metamorphosis it might undergo. Colour permutations underpin this
capacity for adaptation and transformation.
In its fluctuating,
contorted state, the net is suggestive of organisms or humanoid, curved
shapes, evoking human struggles. While some connections form, many
break. Some areas show coherence or resilience, while others fragment.
Tensions ebb and flow.
These tensions and the interactions of
lines and shapes, chromatic, tonal or spatial contrasts, and elements
of Gestalt Principles, serve to explore the viewer’s perception and
psychological responses.
The process involves drawing or tracing
of safety nets, or use of digital images of these or of my paintings,
which I then translate into new works. Different colours, lines and
constellations emerge. As manifestations of human agency, subtle brush
traces and surface marks contrast with graphic elements. Gradual
build-up of the work conveys a sense of control and calmness, slowing
down the speed of life in an apparently out-of-control world.