Eupnea {meaning “breathing in unison”} collective came together during the strange year of 2020, initially as a Creativity Lab and then during the pandemic lockdowns as a remote contemplative observation group. From these beginnings, the collective developed and then decided to use the Arte Laguna prize as an opportunity for a co-creative experience. Through experimentation and iteration, the group moved towards the four collective works presented here. Each collective work is composed of an original ‘catalytic’ piece by a different artist in our collective and pieces made by the other members in resonance with it.
This artistic experiment is also intended as a reflection of:
What co-creation means in our society today
How important it is to have an open mind and heart in order to understand, connect and embrace ourselves and the points of view of others so we can build on each other’s strength to better face our emotional struggle and enhance our creativity process
Catalytic piece: THE VOID (by Donna Chiu) - Painting N. 4 in the combine
The void is a hole in my life, a hole of sorrow and melancholy, of the lost that cannot be changed, or beyond my ability to intervene. The dwelling moments in it are just so unbearable, because of the torturing pain.
It came to my realization that there is no way to fight and escape. The only resolution is acceptance, to learn to co-exist and co-habit with this darkness. Then perhaps, peace will come to light along the journey.
Resonant pieces: Joy - Painting N. 1 in the combine
The original piece gave me a feeling of a cave and the ancient, mystical things that fascinate and terrify us in caves - both actual caves and in the dark, hollow parts of our inner worlds. So, I set out with the idea to take the rounded, deep elements of the original piece and see where I could dare to go! Very quickly in the creation of the piece, a pair of glowing eyes emerged from the darkness - not consciously intentional, but immediately struck me as entirely fitting. The ancient, terrifying, fascinating things are waiting to emerge when we have the courage to let them. Donna’s piece gave me the courage to explore mine.
Resonant pieces: Giorgia Madonno - Painting N. 2 in the combine
The original piece brought me to a cave representing a mystical, scary place in our unconscious. It looked to me like a very ancient space and my mind went to Ulysses' journey when mythological figures (sirens) were attracting boats and men into the gorges to destroy them and I thought about our internal ghosts and how it is difficult, scary and sometimes dangerous facing them but also so much needed to progress in our personal journey (like Ulysses did). I also felt a sense of separation, loneliness and difficulty to reach something, maybe peace.
Based on this I created a piece that can represent also a cave but seen from top, a scary place we need to walk into, a place that might look like our bones spine, where we need to go inside, in our structural self and face our fear, accepting it as part of our journey and who we are. This is a journey that every person needs to walk, it does not matter the origins. Human beings are the same below any cultural mask.
For this reason, in terms of artistic style, in this painting I carved lines, unscripted symbols that are inspired by caves ancient inscriptions and used graffiti spray (our modern “cave inscriptions”), with the purpose of bridging East and West cultures by going back to the source of humanity artistic search: in the caves in Europe, where our ancestors were carving their first form of art and inscriptions and in China when the ancient seal script characters are born (so similar to American rupestrian inscriptions to drive us to ask ourselves if there is really any distinction).
Resonant pieces: Anastasiya Berasneva - Painting N. 3 in the combine
Donna accepts the existence of darkness and her work is a very beautiful and distilled way of showing how it might look to co-exist with the void - ‘hole in her life’. This painting was a true test for me, my attempt to work with fears/monster even if they are not my own. I experienced a real physical feeling of fear and anxiety when I started my reflection of her painting but I tried to paint through these feelings, I tried to make it feel ok. I think adding a lot of texture with various acrylic mediums made me feel like I can touch some of these emotions and it was new to me and it felt good.