Maia Stefana Oprea

"TERRE FERME"

rue Daniel Constantin nr. 3, sector 1, Bucarest

During this year, through my thesis projects "Dust", „Transmographies” and „Mummifications” I decided to put sticks in my own wheels – so to say, by thematically and technically restricting myself, in order to gain „the ability of rational control over the sensoriallity of pictorial material " (Henri Focillon,"Life of forms"). I think the importance lies in the creative process, but my work is just as much about the finished product. The purpose behind these works is to explore the expressive properties of paint and other materials through mostly physical and poetic processes, turning them into something edged with spirit. They stand as the result of experiments in between the field of painting, printmaking, aerography, collage and sculpture.
The “Dust” (in romanian, the project's title „ŢĂRÂNĂ” is much more related to the earth materia in its solid form) project's compositions are comprised of hieratic figures who lack spirit and are trapped in a kind of spherical torn. With its formal anthropomorphic and zoomorphic approach, “Dust” is also sensorially situated in between the humane and the animalic. The characters which populate the space of these works are emphasized precisely by their lack of individuality: elongated figures with bodies and limbs fanning around, as if drifting into the surroundings.They are ordinary bodies centred around the suppressed memories or half-forgotten intimacies that are personal and at the same time as individual to each of us. It is a silent violence, emanating from figures that cannot walk, see or speak.
The “Transmographies” are acrylics transfers of mono prints, hidden under many layers of paint, varnish, airbrush and scratches. The monotypes are based on ink sketches created in moments of sudden extended perplexity, as a rupture that allows me to escape from myself: most often during my travels, in buses, in crowded places, in the corner of the rooms, without light, etc. These compositions actually have no figurative counterpart in the actual real event that may have determined them.
The „Mummifications” sculptures are the result of a transubstantiation and identification with various alterities. They are based on a found object (a pan, a fan, old chairs, etc..), which suffers a sort of “mummification” process. I use this term not in relation to the adhesive or various materials that embalm the object, but in relation to the "twinning spell", to the projection into something else. It follows the original object's skeleton disappearance, all the initial details being devoured by a final uniform color and many layers of Damar.
The investigative basis consists of “catching” the state of inner chaos, which seems to accompany the creative self when it “erupts”, followed by a very rational creative process, which is antithetical to this “eruption”.