Flying colours, series, 2023

In a perfidious way, the unthinkability of the war in your homeland extends to the way you think about the future. Hopelessness and despair are the common shipmates of the shellshocked. In the months following the Russian aggression on Ukraine, my search for meaning was heart-sickeningly forlorn.

It was in a tiny Italian town where I came face to face with The Resurrection by Piero della Francesca and synthetically it all came together and I felt peace and hope in the mind-bending beauty of its colours.

One of the defining characteristics of Piero Della Francesca's hues is their incredible luminosity. The colours glow with an ethereal quality, enhancing the overall atmosphere and evoking a sense of otherworldliness.

In this project, I am trying to deconstruct some of my favourite early Renaissance paintings and frescoes and explore colour as the design and representation of layers of meaning. I tried to remove the destruction of narratives and shapes and by using the simplest forms and an austere setting let the colours tell their stories.

The spatial and luminary values of the composition become mutually dependent; attention is widened beyond an individual patch of colour to include the entirety of the pictorial field. Within the severely restricted setting of a concrete block, the syncopated rhythms of point of view and fall of light begin to shape new pictorial orders.

The Early Renaissance that came after a long spell of plague and misery is best expressed by the life-affirming spirit of its colours. Trying to deconstruct some of its masterpieces and feeling the vitality of their colour scheme, I found solace and order during a time of chaos and discontent. With my works, I invite the audience to experience that feeling of engulfing serenity, joy and hope.

Porcelain, concrete

30x40x35 cm, 56x40x35 cm