The background is a project, which started with a series of paintings in the end of 2022. They depict what would be left of the picture if everything “important” was removed; an insignificant third plan detail magnified to a large size; a beginning of a sketch, the state before anything significant appeared. It struck me as comical, that one part of a picture seems more important than another.

Each of the paintings in the started series is a work in itself. At the same time, they can be used in a completely utilitarian way, for example as scenography, similar to the backgrounds used in photographic studios. They create a performative situation: pictures taken in front of those paintings during an exhibition are, in fact, a part of the artwork.

I deliberately remove the paintings in the series from their stretchers and hang them so that the usually hidden, raw part of the canvas is visible. In this way, I want to strip the works of their usually present 'artwork' settings, to bring them even closer to ordinary objects and to strengthen the association with the photographic background. On the other hand, it is a play on the meta level: I show the background of the background. 

An image can be a very expensive decoration, a form of capital accumulation, a backdrop for a photograph, or a carrier of content. It can affect the viewer on its own, directly, or convey ideas. The only certainty is that it is a material object.

I also think of painting Backgrounds as an attempt at imagining absence. Those paintings represent everything that could be there but isn't. They could be a metaphor for the unseen work of women providing the foundation for more glamorous acts, a metaphor for the lack of representation of certain social groups in culture. They could speak of an inability to express one's individual experience.