Palimpsest: Echoes of Creation and Transformation
A collaboration of Karma Barnes and Robèrt Franken, 2023
Materials: Earth pigments, acrylic, oil paint and ink on canvas and prepared board.
Dimensions: Body of 15 doubles-sided suspended paintings installation, Various sizes: 80 - 150cm in width, weight 1-3 kg each.
Original installation dimensions: 900 cm x 600 cm
Install requirements: Works can be suspended in site-specific formations, each work has two suspension points.
A
symphony of echoes - whispers of creation and transformation that
unfold - resonates in the rich canvas of Earth's never-ending cycles,
where life intertwines with death and creation harmonises with
destruction. Metamorphic mediators inscribe shared becoming wisdoms
in the colours of terrains and stories of terrestrial embodiments. Palimpsest:
Echoes of Creation and Transformation beckons
us to trace our shared journey of evolution and consider our place
within the ever-evolving tapestry of existence. It impels us to
introspect and contemplate our place within the ever-evolving
narrative of existence. Humans
have an intrinsic tendency to evolve, undergoing substantial changes
as a result of collective efforts and interpersonal connections.
Memories layer through time, and imprints etch on this palimpsest of
existence, changed yet retaining their past forms, aspects that
define our essence through emergent intersubjectivity.
This
large-scale installation combines painting and sculpture and is
comprised of earth pigments, acrylics and oils, and ink on prepared
marine ply. Palimpsest
presents fifteen large, cut-out biomorphic shapes hung from the
ceiling, forming a
circle.
Each shape is painted on both back and front, with Barnes using
paints, on one side, made from foraged pigments, and collaborating
with Franken, painting on the reverse, employing traditional oil paints
and ink. Together, the respective painting styles refer
to a central thematic thread of Relative
Terrains,
namely, that the landscapes in which we conduct our lives affect our
experience of life – from our immersion in slow transitions of deep
geological time to cataclysmic environmental events that are occurring
increasingly often. Barnes’ softly-hued, mineral-toned paint,
applied in graceful, fluid passages, suggests an introspective
landscape of thoughtful reflection on life experience.
She says of working with found, natural pigments that, “Earth
pigments, produced by natural forces over aeons, are the material,
interface and mediator through which different elements meet,
carrying the records of the land's creation and transformation that
are metaphors for our own stories as co-creators of our life’s
evolutionary process”. Franken’s compositions speak more of
aerial maps of physical terrain of mountains, valleys, paths and
waterways. Yet both artists’ aesthetic voices speak of the Earth,
of our profound relationship to the soil, and of the imprint of time
on humanity, embodied in the natural world.
