Series
Since 2024, I have been working on a series of works exploring the notion of a mirror in a variety of contextual meanings.
Firstly, through the lens of dynamics between an artist and a muse, the resulting creative mirroring, and my own experience of that phenomenon. The title of this cycle derives from a composition by Ärvo Pärt, ‚Spiegel im Spiegel‘. In conversations with the person whom I have perceived as a Muse, it became a phrase referring to a particular sense of resonance with someone.
Secondly, drawing from Andrei Tarkovsky’s magnum opus, ‚The Mirror‘, I explore the idea of paintings as mirrors of memories; memories made tangible and visual. The formula of Tarkovsky’s film, resembling a stream of consciousness, where the conscious and unconscious elements intertwine, is reflected in some of my works.
Throughout the history of art, the mirror has been a vehicle between conscious and subconscious, between the truth and illusion, vanity and Vanitas; a tool of introspection and (self-)knowledge. An attribute of Venus, it has a long tradition of associations with femininity. Archetypes of the feminine and masculine permeate my work.
That brings me towards an attempt to position myself in dialogue with the legacy of female artists of European Early Modern period, in combined agency through paintings and my interdisciplinary writings. I play with conventions: while the role of the muse in history of art was in most cases played by a woman – I reverse that dynamic, as a female artist portraying a male muse, with focus on the female gaze and a feminine perspective. Going further in the footsteps of the great Italian female painters – Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana or Artemisia Gentileschi – I use self-portraits as a medium of conveying expressions and meanings.
The ideas in this cycle span over a varied subject matter – with references to Italian, German and French culture, music, film, literature, psychology, mythology, astrology, alchemy, and antropology of images; in a way, I, as an artist, serve as a mirror myself. In that mirror, both the personal microcosmos and the collective macrocosmos are reflected.
I have been creating in Vienna and in Rome. I am deeply grateful to President of the American Club of Rome, Silvia Anna Zamarripa, for the wonderful support I have received.
”Whoever looks into the mirror of the water will see first of all his own face. Whoever goes to himself risks a confrontation with himself. The mirror does not flatter, it faithfully shows whatever looks into it; namely, the face we never show to the world because we cover it with the persona, the mask of the actor. But the mirror lies behind the mask and shows the true face.
Carl Gustav JungArchetypes of the Collective Unconscious (Collected Works Vol. 9, Part I)
That brings me towards an attempt to position myself in dialogue with the legacy of female artists of European Early Modern period, in combined agency through paintings and my interdisciplinary writings. I play with conventions: while the role of the muse in history of art was in most cases played by a woman – I reverse that dynamic, as a female artist portraying a male muse, with focus on the female gaze and a feminine perspective. Going further in the footsteps of the great Italian female painters – Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana or Artemisia Gentileschi – I use self-portraits as a medium of conveying expressions and meanings.
The ideas in this cycle span over a varied subject matter – with references to Italian, German and French culture, music, film, literature, psychology, mythology, astrology, alchemy, and antropology of images; in a way, I, as an artist, serve as a mirror myself. In that mirror, both the personal microcosmos and the collective macrocosmos are reflected.
I have been creating in Vienna and in Rome. I am deeply grateful to President of the American Club of Rome, Silvia Anna Zamarripa, for the wonderful support I have received.