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The net is a flexible, wonky or stretched
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/ghost nets), 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’s
suggestive humanoid, curved shapes, evoke human struggles or connections. Some
areas show coherence or resilience and forge links, others fragment. Tensions
ebb and flow, they may resolve, but destabilizing or disruptive elements put a
precarious equilibrium at risk, implying impermanence, uncertainty and
fragility.
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.
© Uta Feinstein 2012-2024 - All Rights Reserved