Solveig Landa moves in a world of substance. For her the spirit of existence resides in all things. She searches for an object’s content as much as she feels its materiality. A small piece of wood, a ribbon, a tool … In every thing exist a possibility to be seen as something different, something detached from the object´s story. Landa collects and then searches for the inherent possibilities of her found material. When she finds it, magic happens.
Landa is an artist of balance. On her large paper sheets you find no stroke, no shape, no direction or colour that is not carefully weighed. Her works are subtle, minimalistic compositions. They hold a strange lightness, as if the shapes with a gentle breath may be set in motion. Should that happen, her world would tip, lose its stability, its focal point.
Landa’s images are like haiku poems. And like traditional haiku they are thematically related to nature and identity.
Landa explore the possibilities and limitations of the printing format. Each of her sheets are unique, and takes hours or even days to complete. Her motifs often consist of only two or three forming elements, bound together by a narrow line. The printmaking objects may be a leaf or a branch, or just as well a plastic strip or something unrecognizable, odd. Either way, the original object’s enters into a new context, something we can wonder about and reflect upon.
Her printing method is demanding. To maintain the purity of the sheet and the balance between the subjects, Landa has to make exact calculations. Where can a form be placed on a sheet to achieve the correct balance and suspense? Where should a line touch a form and how much and what colour should be used?
It’s elegant.
It is…
Easy.
So easy that we intuitively realize how much experience is needed to create this.
How much time.
The prints are Solveig Landa’s way to explore interpersonal relationships, and how we as humans relate to nature. Behind the apparent simplicity of the images is a deep caring for things, for the human, for everything.
By watching them we are passed into thoughts that transcends the potential of the individual work. And this is the point where the work leaves the artist and the responsibility for further reflection is entrusted to us.
Her artistic language reminds me of these lines from T. S. Elliot “Burnt Norton”:
At the still point of the turning world.
Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is.
But neither arrest nor movement.
And do not call it fixity.
Where past and future are gathered,
neither movement from nor towards.
Neither ascent nor decline.
Except for the point, the still point,
there would be no dance.
And there is only the dance.
We welcome Solveig Landa as our new ArtLego artist!
View her profile and works at www.sundero-gallery.com
