IN THE GREY OF TIME
The series In the grey of time includes artistic investigations around origin and form in relation to the concept of grey. The quest have bound together and engendered metaphysical concerns, symbolic and (pata)archaeological explorations of iron and graphite, as well as a series of disparate references, such as 3D modeling.
The main quest – that of realizing a metaphysical thing – has been developed focusing on different instances, so to produce works as multiple trajectories towards the same goal. Within the main research process, Eisen, Grey Sculpture, Pure grey, Graphite powder and Pata_Archeology can be seen as phases (whose developments can partially concur). Each work brings forth unique associations between concepts and material configurations, while the relation to gray, as both color and notion, is always up front. This research draws a possible map of the unknown territory of gray as metaphysical concept that end up always to materiality, historicity, contingency and chaos.
Anyone who has even a small interest in philosophy probably would have encountered in their reading the Kantian concept of reality-in-itself. It is symptomatic of its liveliness the fact that it still current in academic debates, withstanding the ravages of time. This concept was created to describe something unknowable. Personally, the desire to work with this notion was mixed with the excitement inherent in dealing with an impossible target. I was intrigued by the idea of bringing a metaphysical entity into the world, which is – of course not only an impossible task but also an inappropriate one from a philosophical perspective. Yet, in pursuing such a target, I realized how many unexpected things can be found on the way. The color gray became a generative start for pursuing the seemingly impossible quest I had set my mind on. Among my readings on Paul Klee, I found a description of its nature made by Deleuze, and it resonated with my intentions.
According to Paul Klee, the gray (point) can be understood as a source from which the colors black and white born: “If we express it in terms of the perceptible (as though drawing up a balance sheet of chaos), we arrive at the concept grey, at the fateful point between coming-into-being and passing-away; the grey point. The point is grey because it is neither white nor black because it is white and black at the same time. It is grey because it is neither up nor down or because it is both up and down. It is grey because it is neither hot nor cold; it is grey because it is a non-dimensional point, a point between dimensions“.
