TRACING NATURE
Nature is a constant point of reference for me. It encompasses the extent of the universe on all of its levels, it also conditions, and creates the most general context of being. The well-known belief of the ancient Greeks that the structure of the cosmos is analogous to that of a musical work – a “harmony of the spheres” – is not groundless. It finds support in the fact that both mathematical notation in the natural sciences and the theory of music began with assigning real numbers to spatial proportions and sounds.
The coding of phenomena or processes in conventional notation enables further reflection, its possible transformation or the anticipation of new perspective. The process philosophy of A.N. Whitehead, which is close to me, with cosmology as its central point, transforms the mathematical notation of the theory of relativity into metaphysical structure, the self-creating Totality of which is a function of transforming relations between its parts. Reality is understood as a process, and the dynamics of constant change in macro- and microscale, contemporarily described by astrophysics and particle physics respectively, delineates its impressive range.
Being aware of the richness of aspects characterising phenomena of different categories, and taking place on different scales, I focus my attention on a specific phenomenon in nature: that of RHYTHM. It is both a polymorphous and an inseparable attribute of life. From this perspective the world is the sum of recurring and endless rhythms.
In my paintings I try to capture my observations and experiences of various rhythms as well as the awareness of their manifestation beyond our sensual perception. Each one is a form of notation of a given situation as a point on the axis between macro- and microscale dedicated to it. Rhythm is not only a form, in which I perceive and feel the world, but it simultaneously plays the role of an important means of artistic expression for me. Its character is constituted by relations between its elements, and not the elements themselves.
By painting, I oppose dispersion, I construct a new order, I integrate the structure of tensions and forces proper to the pulse of existence. I look for new harmonies, new areas of consciousness. Abstraction as a kind of a language seems to me most strongly connected with Nature, the nature of things or nature of all things. This is because it operates with a remarkable synthesis – a shortcut, an essence – which refers to the essence of primary matters, from which everything that surrounds us and we ourselves derive.
The flat of a canvas paradoxically became a field of exploration of the mystery of space for me. An important premise in my work here is interpreting the plane as a special case of space (when one of the coordinates equals zero). This view, due to the immanent conventionality of the plane in relation to all “beings” that are beyond two-dimensional, seemed very attractive to me. It is a point of departure for the consideration of unknown aspects of space, which searches for their peculiar “algo-RHYTHM,” a code or unknown DNA.
The endless energy of “everything,” which prompts the constant flow of events, of appearing and disappearing existences, of creation and destruction, is the cause of the cyclical perturbations and decay of known arrangements of elements. The disintegration of an existing structure is a turning point, which determines a new perspective. This perspective becomes a point of departure to construct of a new whole, which is characterised by a new rhythm.
In the course of my work I realised that exploring a phenomenon or a process that interests me, I intuitively focus on the creative phase, identifying myself more with the energy of creation than with its converse, namely entropy.
The experience of the catastrophic effects of destruction, which the anthropocentric attitude brought upon Nature, determines the necessity of going beyond the conception of the absolute superiority of human beings. This encourages a search for a new arrangement with a more balanced rhythm reinstating in Nature the deep meaning of the interconnections in its structure. It also triggers the pursuit of a renewed connection with the organism of the Whole, and of reviving of its pulse on the next stage of existence, and of the reinforcement of the power of creation.
This phenomenon of a peculiar “fluctuation” of Nature, and of its modalities leads my senses, curiosity and imagination onto various levels, the coordinates of which can be determined by place and time, but also by situations described by noncommutative geometry, in which the concepts of locality, and time disappear completely. Only the personal dialogue of the inner with the outer world remains a stable factor of every pictorial interpretation.
When I paint I involuntarily enter into the provoking position between idea and matter, consciousness and the subconscious, space and the plain, eternity and time.
My pictorial activity – my individual code, which expresses a form of contact with the world – is, in the end, a permanent tracking of terra incognita. All this in the hope that in this way we can come closer to what is beyond the horizon of the reality familiar to us, the incomprehensible existence of which we only subconsciously forefeel, and which invariably remains a Mystery.
I usually paint cycles – collections of various approaches to the problematic I have undertaken. They constitute open arrangements with several potential configurations. The painting, in the frame of which some “phrase” is captured, changes its significance in the context of another approach or the whole cycle.
The need of going further – of transgressing the threshold of the current consciousness, of traveling into the unknown – accompanies every newly undertaken artistic challenge, giving it a deeper, transcendent sense. This sought-after and elusive space is the space of the sacred.
Anna Sławkowska-Rode