FLEUR DU MAL
SOLO SHOW
Galleria Rajatila, Tampere
23 September – 10 October 2023
FLEUR DU MAL is a small showcase of heat-sensitive paintings presented in the black box of Galleria Rajatila. The series approaches the landscape through visualizing changes happening in the environment.
FOR THIS PURPOSE WE
USE REAGENTS, […] THE
CHANGES WHICH THEY BRING ABOUT OR UNDERGO, SO TO SAY THE LANGUAGE THAT THEY SPEAK
THEREBY INFORM THE RESEARCHER THAT THIS
OR THAT SPECIFIC SUBSTANCE IS PRESENT…
—F. F. RUNGE
—F. F. RUNGE
The Thermophobia Paintings are small plant still lives painted on copperplate using salts, acids, alkalies and various corrosive substances instead of pigment to produce colour. These images are hidden under a layer of pigment that is sensitive to changes in temperature instigated by an electrical component.
THE ALCHEMICAL TRANSFORMATIONS between these pigments, materials, and electronic devices intuitively speak of natural processes and networks. The works are guided by the idea of colours as ‘bioindicators’ that reveal invisible changes occuring in our environment. As the copper plate heats, the paintings undergo a process of becoming visible, and as they cool, they once again dissapear behind a black veil. The process loops during a three-minute interval.
A CONSTANT STATE OF BECOMING, they reflect the uncertainty of our experience. I feel that traditional landscape depictions of a stable and unchanging nature seem dangerous in a reality coloured by environmental change and uncertain predictions about the future.
