In my latest series of paintings, I use imagination as a tool to grapple with the complexities of everyday life. I recontextualize an image archive and infuse things that strongly affect me.
The colorful substance on the canvas hints at natural and spiritual phenomena, commodification, alienation, solitude and class struggle intertwined by the organs of animals and machines.
Nevertheless, I strive to avoid literalness and work more subconsciously, allowing the painting to dictate its own direction. My work is a constant exploration, a search and a loss of ground beneath my feet.
I became skeptical about technological innovations. I genuinely believe in the value of a handcrafted, almost transcendental experience, which I try to achieve through a method that has been sustainably used for centuries.
I use oil painting mixed with turpentine, supplemented with pencil and blue ballpoint pen drawing on canvas as a medium to create slow, gradually accumulated layers of material, making decisions in real-time.
The image emerges as a private ritual. The privacy of creating an image combined with the craftsmanship of my own living labor captured in the work holds a special appeal for me in the current technicist climate of the ephemeral world.
For practical transport back to Prague, I leave the works unstretched, loose, and without a frame, which is why I do not consider them finished at the moment. Please take it as a glimpse under the lid of an uncooked soup.
Adrian Altman