Esma Pacal Turam is known for paper sculptures representing her fascination with communication between different people. Crowds and individuals alike populate her works. Karina Wisniewska works with acrylic lacquer and quartz sand, to create paintings that appear as if they were made of cloth.
Bed and break in silence
Sara Tecchia Roma New York is proud to present Bed and break in silence, a
two-person show juxtaposing the work of sculptor Esma Pacal Turam and paintings by
Karina Wisniewska.
Based in Istanbul, Turam is known for paper sculptures representing her fascination
with communication between different people. Crowds and individuals alike populate
her works.
Also presented here are new pieces made with silicone, used to create jellyfish-like
domes.
"I always liked watching the raindrops come together and flow down a window," she
explains, "a meditative and peaceful movement. With this in mind, I started working
with silicone in 1994. The silicone works almost like a pencil for me, but the
outcome is transparent, flexible. It shimmers like crystal or glass; it is light in
weight, like paper. I was looking for a lace type of effect for the curtain, to be
able to look at it from both sides. Silicone just clicked in as the right material
for the work."
While the paper works focus on the crowd, her silicone works present an emphasis on
individuality. The dome, representing a metaphorical "temple" is the focus of the
individuals who come together and create the crowd (a belief, a hope or even a fear
which brings them together). The theme of the crowd becomes louder in this project.
A musician as well, Wisniewska works with acrylic lacquer and quartz sand, to create
paintings that appear as if they were made of cloth. Many are based on scores by the
likes of John Cage and Debussy. Ian Findlay in Asian Art News states: "There is a
feeling of fragility about much of Wisniewska's art which, in turn, through her
strong single colors, suggests a degree of melancholy, aloneness, and loss. The
sheer quality of her art has that unique quality of timelessness to it that helps
one to retain the images in the mind to be viewed there again and again."
Here she premieres the Seeds of Contemplation series. Seeds of Contemplation is a
composition by Toshio Hosokawa, a Japanese composer and heir of John Cage. But more
than the music itself, Wisniewska was inspired by the thoughts behind this piece,
thoughts of Zen:
"Every moment and event in our life plants something in our souls. The wind brings
innumerable seeds. Most of them are lost because we are not able, not ready, not
open enough to receive them. The seeds that do spring up produce branches and roots
to all sides and can become gigantic trees.
"That's the idea behind--nothing esoteric or religious. I am thinking of small
patterns, small cells, developing to something larger, bigger, developing like the
seeds to all sides. Always trying to keep the perfection/beauty that lies in every
original cell and microcosmos as long as possible in a growing field. Also without
losing the fragility, that turns more and more in a kind of strong net."
Reception: Thursday, April 12, 6 - 8pm
Sara Tecchia Roma New York
529 West 20th Street, between Tenth Avenue and Eleventh Avenue - New York