Border surface from intuition to informalism
Download PDF here (only in finnish) Rajapinta intuitiosta informalismiin
Abstract
By contrasting my own artistic work with factors that have affected Finnish informalism and its artists, I have aimed to study the relation between intuitive work and informalist art. I examine intuitive insight as the driving force behind the process. By this, I refer to the insights that have affected the material formation of my artwork and the outlook gained while setting them up, according to which my works operate on a border between paintings and sculptures. Through my artistic research, I was able to find out what this border is and how it can be seen in my work and the resulting pieces. This has opened the relation of my art to the larger framework of informalist art, whose ideology I attempt to utilize as the theoretical framework of my research. Furthermore, I examine the effect of intuition on my artwork, how the relation of spontaneous working and reacting in artistic work define a work of art, its influences and its overall character. In this framework of artistic work, I also analyze my relationship with the concept of creativity and how it can be seen in my work. Through these viewpoints, I attempt to answer my research questions:
How is the border between painting and sculpting formed? How can it be seen in my work and the resulting works of art and exhibitions? What is the border between intuition and informalism, and how does it show in my artistic work and the resulting artifacts?
The most central part of my artistic work has been experimental work. Through this kind of work, new information of the process has been accumulated, which has been analyzed in relation to the artworks resulting from the process. This type of analytical artistic work has allowed me to establish my art as a part of artistic research and the production of new information. The primary purpose of my artistic research has not been systematic data gathering, but high-quality artistic work, through which I have produced visual material, information that can be materialized as artistic research. Intuition can be seen in my artistic work in different material choices, tools and working methods, as well as their interaction relations and application options. By utilizing these options, I have attempted to produce both information about the process as well as concrete artistic objects for observation and analysis. The linking of factors and different ways of expression, as well as their interactions, have had a significant effect, which can be difficult to notice during artistic work. Based on this, intuition can be stated to be the driving force behind the work. To the artist, these pieces of larger wholes appeared as new insights, like heaven-sent. In the light of my research, I believe that this outside guidance appears to be a product of an unconscious intuitive process, a personal inner guidance. In my artistic work, the connection to informalism has showed in material-related insights, for example in the way a sculpted part in the material used appears on the painted surface as a black drawing-like line, which has led to a concept of a border between the possibilities of painting and sculpting. As a result, the sculpting approach has opened up a possibility in my work to move around by using methods of subtracting and adding, both into and out of the artwork. This kind of cross-border work has allowed me to redefine the material and content relations of painting and sculpting, through which I have developed a unique expression of techniques, materials, and content, which can be evaluated as a part of the tradition of informalist art. The relation of my artistic work to intuition and informalism has also showed in the way how in exhibitions, the relation of space to the artwork has been as significant a factor as the material’s relation to the artwork. This has led to the development of a new way to bring artwork operating on the border between painting and sculpting closer to the field of installation art. I believe that this new way of setting up artwork, which creates borders between content, has a conceptual role, through which my notion of the setup of an exhibition has been formed. Because of this, the setting up of works of art into an exhibition has turned into setting up the exhibition into a work of art.
Keywords
Intuition, informalism, painting, sculpture, installation, border surface, creativity.
Making of video can be viewed Here
