LandEscape 14
Batya Kuncman
Art Review
unique in Nature because of our conscious capacity for creation but also destruction. The reference to childhood and the reminders to the interaction with the environment establish a vivid involvement in an emotional way with the viewer. At the same time, you seem to remove the historic gaze from the reality you refer to, offering the viewers the chance to perceive in an absolute and almost atemporal form. So I would take this occasion to ask you if in your opinion personal experience is an absolutely indispensable part of a creative process... Do you think that a creative process could be disconnected from direct experience?
It would seem impossible to separate direct experience from the creative process. The authentic vision of one is a result of many previous experiences and although some art, in particular conceptual or abstract art, may appear disconnected from direct experience, it still carries within it the artist's essential energy and vision which stems from their own creative process as they need to express it. When I first happened to get to know your Flower Eaters series I tried to relate all the visual information to a single meaning. But I soon realized that I had to adjust into the visual unity suggested by the inner coherence of the canvas, forgetting my need for a univocal understanding of its symbolic contents: in your work, rather than a hermetic conceptual interiority, I can recognize the desire to enable us to establish direct relations... Would you say that it's more of an intuitive or a systematic process?
Forever, 2014
The “Flower Eaters” series took a long time to emerge. For over a year I was experimenting with various painting techniques that were meant to blend my internal urge to paint spontaneously with a need to have greater
As I moved through this time I developed a lot of ideas on paper and out of many months of what appeared to be a long journey into the night the flower eater appeared. It answered an inner need for me and I am still intrigued by its
Acrylic on canvas board, 14”x11” (Flower Eaters)
control over painting by applying a systematic process. Additionally I wanted to combine abstract elements yet still derive meaningful content related to social and historical references. This may be an impossible task, but at the time I felt compelled to move forward with it.