Although the principle of ‘blur’ has been introduced into the tradition of European painting already by da Vinci’s sfumato-technique, it is however only after Gerhard Richter (in whose work the phenomenon of out-of-focus and hazy images took such a dominant role) that the blurred surface has become one of central motives in both figurative and abstract paintings as well as photography and post-photography of nowadays. Artists employ the means of blurring intentionally, in different combinations, and following different conceptual and technical strategies. Blurred surfaces, dissolving contours, hazy appearances, indistinct motifs in a state between apparition and dissolution, chaotic accumulation and constant overdose of equally important and unimportant details, dispersed visions and meanings, and aspects of color and composition brought to the fore – with all this in mind, we entered the studio to examine possibility of ‘blur’ in the context of body and choreography.
The research for the solo has been developed with an input by artists of different disciplines. Together, we have searched for translation of ‘blur’ into all levels of a stage performance. ‘Blurred’ we understood literally – as something ‘out-of shape’ or ‘unable to keep one shape/form’, but first of all metaphorically – as visual and physical representation of an emotional and mental state in which we are being deprived of previously recognized and generally accepted point(s) of reference, and, both on a micro and macro level, constantly exposed to fragmented reality made of data of all sorts: bits and scratches of images, sounds and (post) information sunk in noise and echoes of ideas and ideologies.
“blur” is another chapter of “Exercises in Looking” – a practice of perceiving and thinking with images initiated with a trio “…(rooms by the sea)”, 2014. Stemming from my interest in contemporary painting and (post) photography, it’s inspired by its theory and artistic strategies, and examines a possibility of restitution of the gaze in the context of stage performance.
coproduction
Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk
premiere March 20th 2017 at
Art Stations Foundation, Poznan
pictures by Jakub Wittchen
