My artistic practice focuses mostly on archetypes, the perception of an image, and the act of seeing /process of looking.

 

Our eyes are so used to seeing pictures that the sole aspect of the picture (vertical portrait and horizontal landscape) suggests, what is in it. Flipping a canvas 90 degrees could turn one object into another, a view of the hills into a strand of hair, which makes me think, that maybe it doesn’t matter what we paint, maybe what matters is that we paint. 

 

I frequently come back to the subject of archetypes. Due to their presence in the collective unconscious, they have the potential to communicate complex meanings and are accessible to a wide audience. 

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I think of archetypes both in a Jungian manner, but also as conventions of the portrayal of certain topics. I don’t think any convention is innocent or purely aesthetic, because they are all historically and/or culturally loaded. I play with them to examine how they influence power dynamics and the perception of reality. The tropes I find have the potential to form new meanings, often standing in opposition to what came before.

 

Another way to appeal to viewers’ emotions I am investigating, is creating olfactory installations. Smell is the most primal of the senses, therefore our emotional response to it is immediate and often unconditional. Smell is one of the body’s ways of detecting danger and so it is connected to the fight-flight-freeze response. It is also the sense that has the deepest links to memory. All these qualities make scents a great field for artistic exploration, as they allow the creation of an immersive experience, capable of appealing to the viewer more directly than purely visual means. I research the relationship of particular odors to human neurophysiology and behaviorism but also their cultural significance and use both synthetic molecules and natural materials, all the time focusing on the sensations and feelings I want to evoke.