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My work concerns μíμησις (mimesis), i.e., imitation, mimicry, miming, representation, reproduction or copying, to cite just a few derivations or translations of the Greek term. The word refers to a μíμoς (mimos), that is, a clown or poor actor. Is oil painting, which is still rather traditional in style, still a valid medium in these times of exponential proliferation of the media? Manual work can hardly compete with the current techniques.
Even photography seems a bit old-fashioned compared with the computer animations used in films. And yet, as Marcel Duchamp observed, any artist creating an oil painting these days necessarily produces a ready-made work since industrially manufactured paint is beyond the artist’s control.
Artists can therefore focus on materiality, make their own pigments, work on different techniques, or highlight the brush strokes, thickness, gloss or matte of a painting, in short, develop its pictoriality. But what about its realism? Of course, I simply like to paint. Unfortunately, however, this is not enough to constitute an artistic practice which is … not too stupid (Duchamp rightly rebelled against the expression, bête comme un peintre (stupid as a painter). Yet, no matter how obsolete, old-fashioned or even untimely it is, oil painting can be used to divert images produced by other media. Painting over a photograph allows one to display the distance between the representation and its object, while the photo itself seems to capture what is real.
However, painting does not escape this diversion of photography or other technologies (computer manipulations, Internet, etc.) unscathed. The idea of painting conscientiously from photographs seems a bit ludicrous in itself, but I like this aspect because it is seriousness that I find truly boring. [...]
The whole text is available here.
More information about the artist and her work: www.zajac.ch
Contact: info@zajac.ch
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