MOIRA J. RATMOKO
BORN IN 1995
THEORY
APPROACH
I, a being born into a world that holds impressions like sand clinging to wet feet. Barely arrived, they pour down on me, penetrating the soul like blades and kisses. How, oh how, does one hold on, truly hold on, to the impression on the self?
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To the invisible residue of a feeling? I have tried to capture it, to screen it, frame it, envision it, to foresee it. To hold and fixate it, to catch and summon it. And once it’s finally there, how do I get rid of it when I no longer want it? How does it come about, and who invited it – was it really me?
I was told painting has no agenda. The raw impact of pigment on surface, mechanical and cold. Then who has it – the artist, the gallerist, the money, the capitalist? No, I feel it is the connection, the familiar recognition that holds the agenda.
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The longing for an image of an emotion, a portrait of a mood. The desire for connection, for empathy, to immortalize the moment. It’s the need for beauty and depth. For unique pieces that can truly hold their value.
My souls lake is deep, and in it, I find recognition. Barely grasped, already gone again – fleeting and concrete at once. This relationship a being can have with a painting, a bond stronger than time. This is what I wish to give, an impression like sand on wet feet by the sea.
My work navigates between different movements without adhering to any tradition. I synthesize the emotional lyrical aspects with surreal themes and compose it like a moody movie scene.
Extending Max Ernst’s grattage technique, I strive to develop emotionally deep and dialogically charged compositions. Asemic writing techniques inform my choices of how to arrange the paint before applying grattage techniques.
This chosen method is not merely about using Asemic writing as an informer of placing the paint and means of communication, but as an intuitive connection and way to delve into the act of painting itself as a creator of a scene and lyrical creation.
The work entails analyzing the structures and cultural meanings behind the unexpectedly formed shapes and transcending them by deconstructing its recognition immediately and thereby creating a suspension between the experienced recognition and the unknown.
Through uncovering and expressing new dimensions of emotional and visual resonance by altering shapes recognizable state, I create the appearance of cyphered information and hidden shapes and messages.
Integrating semi-recognizable subliminal influences in my work, I tap into the unconscious mind and enable the ability to question recognition as a habitual behavior itself.
This adds another layer of depth, which invites to experience the artwork and their own mind on a conscious and subconscious level and the dialogue between the both.