[ Irina Teske ]

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BIO:

Irina Teske is a Windsor-based visual artist currently obsessed with acrylic paint on chipboard.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

The images challenge established concepts of landscape painting. Distorting horizon lines, juxtaposing close-up and wide angle views and playing with ideas of positive and negative space are some of the tools I use to abstract images inspired by nature. The sharp edges of the individual chips found in the particle board help to turn the soft, fluid, blurred lines to an exact pattern of shapes. Gradations in colour and form achieved by layering shades of paint and exploiting the existing materials accentuate a sense of space in the work.

The repetitive patterns found in nature echo the repetition found in industry, in the mass production of products such as the material used in the work-chipboard. Chipboard's rough, unfinished surface works against our preconceived notions of the softness and beauty often found in nature's ideal. The material has its own repetitive patterns that can manipulated (by painting individual chips and background) to duplicate the patterns found in the natural world.

Essentially, my work concerns itself with the creation of a meditative space, a spiritual place in time. Painting, with its fluidity of line and endless tonal qualities is the medium that best lends itself to this end. Chipboard arrests this mutability and forces sharp, coarse edges not only on the beauty of the image but also on the gestural quality of the paint. I am intrigued by how these two elements work with each other and against each other, adding layers of meaning to my paintings. It is this contradiction that results in the creation of a new space, the space between the background and the surface, a place on contemplation.

 

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