Observations: Light
19.03. – 10.04.2015
Exhibition in the Abbaye aux Dames, Caen, France
Curator: Elena Veljanovska
Artists: Yane Calovski | Fleur Helluin | Hristina Ivanoska
Website: observations-light.tumblr.com
The exhibition ‘Observations: Light’ approaches the subject of visual art’s most fundamental element, the light and the role it plays as an active component for artistic creation and visual perception. The works in this exhibition are analysing the visible, chromatic qualities of light and the transformative power of natural light and trying to depict the dark, emphasizing or altering the sculptural characteristics of objects. On the other hand, they are observing the metaphoric, philosophical and spiritual meaning of light. Each of the artists in the exhibition is taking a different starting point in their observation or working with light. In her search for light and dark Fleur Helluin is making a journey throughout art history, to end up exploring the luminous chromatics of the prehistoric observatory in Macedonia. In the search for the intellectual light Hristina Ivanoska is putting us into a dialogue with the transcendental meaning of light and reaching enlightenment through philosophy and emancipation, whereas Yane Calovski is exploring the possibilities of non-visual representation and the poetic meaning of light. The works collected here, of course, owe much to a long historical line of the enquiry and debate about light through art. The acute awareness of the importance of light for human existence, has always given it a central role in art and it’s representation throughout history. Therefore the light has always been associated with the higher instances of creation, whether it was depicted as the Sun in the prehistoric religions, or later on, in the definition of the concept of God as ‘light’ in Christianity. The use of light in art is inevitably connected with both the foundations of visual representation and the development of the theories of beauty. In the late Middle ages, for example Thomas Aquinas as the foundation of beauty recognizes three crucial elements: proportion, integrity and claritas, the last term referring more precisely to light or luminosity. The interpretations of light played a great importance in the middle age manuscripts, conveying the dominant tendency of the time: reaching light through the faith in God, which resulted in luminous golden artworks, reflecting the light from within. The chiaroscuro technique of the Renaissance, and the use of central light in the Baroque painting (Caravaggio, George de La Tour) brought a completely new way of painting the volumes and shadows in the painting, thus giving way to a new expression and staging of the image composition.
Towards modernity and the growing scientific awareness about the physical quality of light, a new way of light explorations in art started to shape the observations to this element: the en plein-air (open-air) painting technique of the French impressionists breathing a shimmering air into the painting and bathing them in light. It culminated in one of the most famous studies of light and its influence on the painted object, the meticulous Rouen Cathedral paintings analysis done by Claude Monet from 1892 to 1894. These studies became a landmark in perception of the transformative power of natural light over the observed subject and the importance of natural light in painting. The work of two technological pioneers, marks the atmosphere at the beginning of the 20th century art explorations, and they are playing specifically important role for the upcoming interest in experimental light-art. The kinetic future – oriented sculpture Light space modulator of László Moholy-Nagy produced shadow formations played with coloured and white light, whereas Thomas Wilfred’s ‘Lumia’ extended the use of light by turning it into sound. Today, this so called heritage is still reflected, in the works of artists such as Olafur Eliasson, for whom the light is the central element for creating his installations that are changing the sense for space and perspective, or the digital artist Ryoji Ikeda, whose audio-visual experiments with light and sound, are visualising a completely new reality achieved by complex mathematical calculations.
Artists: Yane Calovski | Fleur Helluin | Hristina Ivanoska
Website: observations-light.tumblr.com
The exhibition ‘Observations: Light’ approaches the subject of visual art’s most fundamental element, the light and the role it plays as an active component for artistic creation and visual perception. The works in this exhibition are analysing the visible, chromatic qualities of light and the transformative power of natural light and trying to depict the dark, emphasizing or altering the sculptural characteristics of objects. On the other hand, they are observing the metaphoric, philosophical and spiritual meaning of light. Each of the artists in the exhibition is taking a different starting point in their observation or working with light. In her search for light and dark Fleur Helluin is making a journey throughout art history, to end up exploring the luminous chromatics of the prehistoric observatory in Macedonia. In the search for the intellectual light Hristina Ivanoska is putting us into a dialogue with the transcendental meaning of light and reaching enlightenment through philosophy and emancipation, whereas Yane Calovski is exploring the possibilities of non-visual representation and the poetic meaning of light. The works collected here, of course, owe much to a long historical line of the enquiry and debate about light through art. The acute awareness of the importance of light for human existence, has always given it a central role in art and it’s representation throughout history. Therefore the light has always been associated with the higher instances of creation, whether it was depicted as the Sun in the prehistoric religions, or later on, in the definition of the concept of God as ‘light’ in Christianity. The use of light in art is inevitably connected with both the foundations of visual representation and the development of the theories of beauty. In the late Middle ages, for example Thomas Aquinas as the foundation of beauty recognizes three crucial elements: proportion, integrity and claritas, the last term referring more precisely to light or luminosity. The interpretations of light played a great importance in the middle age manuscripts, conveying the dominant tendency of the time: reaching light through the faith in God, which resulted in luminous golden artworks, reflecting the light from within. The chiaroscuro technique of the Renaissance, and the use of central light in the Baroque painting (Caravaggio, George de La Tour) brought a completely new way of painting the volumes and shadows in the painting, thus giving way to a new expression and staging of the image composition.
Towards modernity and the growing scientific awareness about the physical quality of light, a new way of light explorations in art started to shape the observations to this element: the en plein-air (open-air) painting technique of the French impressionists breathing a shimmering air into the painting and bathing them in light. It culminated in one of the most famous studies of light and its influence on the painted object, the meticulous Rouen Cathedral paintings analysis done by Claude Monet from 1892 to 1894. These studies became a landmark in perception of the transformative power of natural light over the observed subject and the importance of natural light in painting. The work of two technological pioneers, marks the atmosphere at the beginning of the 20th century art explorations, and they are playing specifically important role for the upcoming interest in experimental light-art. The kinetic future – oriented sculpture Light space modulator of László Moholy-Nagy produced shadow formations played with coloured and white light, whereas Thomas Wilfred’s ‘Lumia’ extended the use of light by turning it into sound. Today, this so called heritage is still reflected, in the works of artists such as Olafur Eliasson, for whom the light is the central element for creating his installations that are changing the sense for space and perspective, or the digital artist Ryoji Ikeda, whose audio-visual experiments with light and sound, are visualising a completely new reality achieved by complex mathematical calculations.
These historical references that follow one research line, are taken only to guide us through the direct and indirect inspirations and influences for creating this exhibition. The pointed influences are just a segment of the vast researches on this topic, given its complexity. The overall selection of works in this exhibition is thus giving us a rich variety of interpretations of light in the artworks of three contemporary artists, turning it into a playground for contextualising a combination of old existing works and new works created especially for this exhibition. Thus, the approach of this exhibition is rather a poetic exploration of the topic, accentuated with multi-layered aspects from art history, inquiry into the urge for creation and the importance of light in the works of these three artists.
In the series of drawings ‘About a stone’, comprising of drawings made in the Macedonian prehistoric observatory Kokino, Fleur Helluin is approaching the topic with a research focus on the natural light and the dark, it’s importance for the drawing and it’s chromatic quality and saturation. By combining different materials and using the variety of their material values in the drawings, adding sounds and an additional voluminous spatial installation, the artist creates a small material collection of fragments that were found around the observatory, in the attempt to capture the same sight, make sense of the space, and to see it in the same way as the ancient tribes who created it. In her works there are wide influences ranging from the baroque painters and their research on light, to a research of the digital light that we are surrounded with today (computers, smart phones) and it’s chromatic quality.
The works of Hristina Ivanoska, short texts in reflecting golden color, are appealing because of their attractiveness and shine. But, in fact their goal is to lure the audience into a very delicate and complex dialogue about the relationship and the space that faith, spirituality and religion have in society nowadays. In her latest project ‘La Mystérique (the path of Grace)’, she features works in diverse medium inspired by the written work of the philosopher Simone Weil, and the feminist Luce Irigaray. In this way, she is researching the process of female emancipation through intellectual enlightenment, by reworking important segments of their writings, with which she creates minimal textual constructions. With this act she puts these two important voices together on stage, creating a new voice, a construct, through which she is conveying her thoughts about the saintly, decisiveness, radicalism on one, and the love, ecstasy and sacrifice on other side. Therefore, in the works of Ivanoska two languages are intertwined. On the one hand is the visual language, directly inspired by the medieval church painting, which by the use of golden color boldly reflects the physical light, but is also a symbol of the divine principle. On the other hand, it opens up a discussion about the complexity of the light as a spiritual, emancipatory (political) and social category today.
While visualisation is considered to be crucial for the artistic creation, in his works, Yane Calovski is exploring the potential of the emptiness and non-visual representation. Over the selection of objects and shapes full of meaning and emptied of clear representation, the works leave space for anticipation of the imagery, as well as allowing to the light and the dark to shape these often-associative objects anew. He repeatedly attempts to address the imageless and to decipher the indescribable by stripping off the objects and shapes to their basis, thus giving them a completely new meaning and revoking the memory about their primary function.
Additionally, the creation of this exhibition opened up fruitful space for discussion and thinking what role light has in the works we are creating, and what are the possible ways of interpretations of light in the artworks, as well as what is the space for light in the works of these three artists. Some of these thoughts will be published in the form of a short interview in the following catalogue.
In the series of drawings ‘About a stone’, comprising of drawings made in the Macedonian prehistoric observatory Kokino, Fleur Helluin is approaching the topic with a research focus on the natural light and the dark, it’s importance for the drawing and it’s chromatic quality and saturation. By combining different materials and using the variety of their material values in the drawings, adding sounds and an additional voluminous spatial installation, the artist creates a small material collection of fragments that were found around the observatory, in the attempt to capture the same sight, make sense of the space, and to see it in the same way as the ancient tribes who created it. In her works there are wide influences ranging from the baroque painters and their research on light, to a research of the digital light that we are surrounded with today (computers, smart phones) and it’s chromatic quality.
The works of Hristina Ivanoska, short texts in reflecting golden color, are appealing because of their attractiveness and shine. But, in fact their goal is to lure the audience into a very delicate and complex dialogue about the relationship and the space that faith, spirituality and religion have in society nowadays. In her latest project ‘La Mystérique (the path of Grace)’, she features works in diverse medium inspired by the written work of the philosopher Simone Weil, and the feminist Luce Irigaray. In this way, she is researching the process of female emancipation through intellectual enlightenment, by reworking important segments of their writings, with which she creates minimal textual constructions. With this act she puts these two important voices together on stage, creating a new voice, a construct, through which she is conveying her thoughts about the saintly, decisiveness, radicalism on one, and the love, ecstasy and sacrifice on other side. Therefore, in the works of Ivanoska two languages are intertwined. On the one hand is the visual language, directly inspired by the medieval church painting, which by the use of golden color boldly reflects the physical light, but is also a symbol of the divine principle. On the other hand, it opens up a discussion about the complexity of the light as a spiritual, emancipatory (political) and social category today.
While visualisation is considered to be crucial for the artistic creation, in his works, Yane Calovski is exploring the potential of the emptiness and non-visual representation. Over the selection of objects and shapes full of meaning and emptied of clear representation, the works leave space for anticipation of the imagery, as well as allowing to the light and the dark to shape these often-associative objects anew. He repeatedly attempts to address the imageless and to decipher the indescribable by stripping off the objects and shapes to their basis, thus giving them a completely new meaning and revoking the memory about their primary function.
Additionally, the creation of this exhibition opened up fruitful space for discussion and thinking what role light has in the works we are creating, and what are the possible ways of interpretations of light in the artworks, as well as what is the space for light in the works of these three artists. Some of these thoughts will be published in the form of a short interview in the following catalogue.
Download the Observations: Light catalogue |