A choice of docility is inherent to the becoming of this painting. Docility here marks the
concept of listening closely, so that one could be a better instrument for what needs to be
expressed. Playing with this idea, I was impelled to use painting not anymore as a means of
attempting to describe myself but rather as a distanced, altar-like devotional object. The
meeting point with the canvas shifted from self-challenging straight-forwardness to almost an
act of service. Abandoning the execution of any fixed and predetermined visual offered me a
new perception of myself as an artist, that of a tool needed by the painting.
The painting was done without any preparatory sketches, as the preceding works (a series of
small paintings called “Heeding”) served rather as a mental preparation and practice on the
idea of docility. The painted surface consists of multiple thin layers of oil paint which gains
its subtleties from use of oil pastel that has partly been blended in, partly left visible as
graphic lines. Abstraction is my preferred way of making visuals and serves to remove an
imposed narrative. Any shape bearing a resemblance to lungs, a headdress or deer’s tracks
therefore stems from the abstraction itself.

(14/25)