Blossom by Stephan Spicher @ Sangkring Art Space
Solo Exhibition Stephan Spicher
Blossom
Opening : Saturday, March 2 2013 19.30 wib
Curator : Mr. Urs Ramseyer
Exhibition current until : April 2 2013
BLOSSOM
From eternal line to blossom
Anyone who has followed Stephen Spicher’’s work over the past years knows, this artist was a consummate draftsman and painter of the ‘‘Eternal Line’’, which has given all his works and exhibitions name and title. The line, drawn and painted, was his path and medium to go beyond the limits of the visible imagein order to step out in the eternal and non- graspable space, with the intention and the goal to understand a little bit more of what we call ‘‘eternity’’.
During several working stays in Southeast Asia and especially in Bali, and after intensive observation and perception of bamboo, rice paddies, and flowers, Stephan Spicher had been increasingly concerned with the line in the realm of plants, with the result that his ‘‘Eternal Line’’ transformed, in a wondrous metamorphosis and with inner necessity, into bamboo.
From the very beginning, Stephan Spicher’’s intellectual and artistic exploration of the origin and nature of the BLOSSOM has evolved on the level of various artistic means and positions. First gold flowers started to unfold on picturesque atmospheric backgrounds, applied on canvas and aluminium, works, which theartist exhibited in two major exhibitions at the Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and in the New National Library in Singapore. In afollowing step, Spicher created works in which blossoms from lacquer on paper literally seemed to detache themselves from their background, thus becoming independent ‘‘picture-objects’’. Consequently, by now the artist began to detach his BLOSSOMS out of her pictorial context and to treat them as free forms of their own.
Blossom and the cycle of life
In Japan, hanami, the viewing of the cherry blossom, is a centuries-old tradition. With their homage to flowering the Japanese are, time and again, celebratingthe overwhelming beauty of the BLOSSOM. But at the same time they are also pondering the ephemeral nature of blooming in their own life. Thus, the BLOSSOM simultaneously stands for eternal beauty as well as for transience and the volatile nature of life.
In China, the character for ““flower open”” stands for youth, and the one for ““flowers fall”” is to say that youth comes and goes. ““Flowers Bloom and Flowers Wither”” —— hua hua kai xiè—— is a metaphor that speaks about the cycle of life and the fact that things in life come and go. In Taoist traditions of China the highest level of enlightenment is depicted as Golden Flower, and in Buddhism and Hinduism, the eight-petalled flower of the lotus is a symbol for the passage of time as well as the seat of the Buddha, of the divine Creator Brahma and the goddess of wisdoms, arts, and sciences, Dewi Saraswati.
In many cultures of the world nature in the context of blooming and withering means transience, but also power of renewal. In the course of an endless cyclicalmotion all natural phenomena are thus brought into a cycle of birth, growth, decay, death and reincarnation. Thus, in the thinking and creating of people from allover the world, trees, plants and flowers have become metaphors for the cycle of life and, at the same time, an object of artistic creativity that points to a life in transition.
Blooming and withering are part of a comprehensive organic process of transformation and renewal. In every bud, the flower, fruit and seed are included. The artistic challenge lies not least in making this multifaceted interpenetration visible and perceptible. Starting from the observation of nature, he transforms both visible and invisible processes and phenomena into a new, artistic reality and statement about the forces of growth and decay.
BLOSSOMS only live for the duration of a moment. Bloom is almost like a snapshot in a long process of growth and decay. It so happens that while in BLOSSOM we already sense withering and thus protect us from the first signs of erosion with cosmetics and surgery, being afraid of our inevitable fading and drying out. The Art of Blooming and Fading has nowadays become a real cornerstone of human self-employment and a global business, too.
Urs Ramseyer
Dokumentasi Display Blossom
