Untitled (under | water project) Print

under ǀ water These paintings do not communicate phsychological states or concrete references. Intuitively, we can see them as a process of translating a certain environment in the language of painting. We can better understand this initial intuition if we take into consideration the artist s previous projects which state her natural need to experiment various techniques, showing, as well, the existence of a personal philosophical frame. Raluca Băjenaru previously made installations with a performance component which revolved around writing and its ability to be visually significant (Asemy 2015, Disassembled writing, 2017) or suspended the process of investing meaning into words through the creation of atypical contexts of visibility (Increate. Installation for the words before the words, 2017, Breath Screen, 2017). She also created a series of installations that question the function of memory (history) by placing the origin of the archive on the human body (Sensual archaeology, 2016). What do all these have in common? The idea that the image is primary in the process of gathering knowledge, that there is a world of perceptions whose direct experience is continuously modified by the logic of language. Since words do not show, but they accompany, explaining an image, it seems necessary to question their authority in the relation to ourselves (our body, our biography, etc), to the others (sociological, psychological interpretations) or to the world (religious or scientifical interpretations). To Raluca Băjenaru, the artistic object has the purpose of making visible the priority of image over the written word (explanation, theory). Through painting, she continues the non-literal explorations of the image. Painting reflects on the visibility of a certain environment, under | water represents an imprecise collection of the experimental and sensorial experiences that took place on the surface of the canvas. The immersion in the aquatic environment is not seen as opposed to another environment, but observed in its personal manifestation, in its diluted reflection. The works suggest this environment, projecting unprecise shapes, diffuse colors caught in aleatory or organic movements, indistinct articulations and impressions transposed through the means of imagination into an incipient form of objectual configuration. The pictural representation of this underwater density allows the image a temporary freedom from the logic of language, as well as a playful space around the arbitrary of perceptions – a game made of textures, overlapping of colors, points of intensity and coagullation. (Emilian Margarit)