Artspace / Schauraum
An der Kirche 14 D-06317 Erdeborn The exhibition runs from September 8 through October 6, 2013 "The Land in Between" (Simone Distler, Gian Merlevede) Opening hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 12:00 - 17:30 (free of charge) |
Simone Distler - Gian Merlevede
The Land in Between
About the exhibition
Exhibition in the Artspace of the former vicarage of Erdeborn.
The art couple Merlevede Distler shows new paintings and graphical work.
Gian Merlevede (40) created some paintings that weave classical landscape, undiluted christian faith and spiritual longing together.
Simone Distler (31) roams through the known and the unknown. She understands her mountain and desert scenes as metaphors for the high and low fases of life.
Simone Distler (31)
Zum Bearbeiten hier klicken .Between Places / Zwischen den Orten - Simone Distler (2012 Silkscreen on Paper, Series: 1 till 10, Printing volume: 5 Pieces each) |
Between places is a series of silkscreen prints. Visually the cycle is about crossing landscapes in staccato. As the eye wanders between places, the moods subtly change. The subtext is about journeying life. I wanted to examine solitary moments, single phases in a journey. Singularities standing on its own, while at the same time constituting bigger coherences. In my work I take the roaming-through-landscapes as a metaphor for the voyage of the human soul. Identity taking form, personality being shaped. Swerving and crossing through processes, facing fears, overcomming adversities. In a way, is like hiking up mountains, overcoming obstacles, dealing with challenges. Time and time again I am intruiged how roads traveled, keep winding in new ways. Opening up unexpected views and suprising doorways. Bunches of black lines may appear like roadblocks, but then again, there's the suspended whiteness of the quality paper carrying the ink in the first place. A natural white full of space, a passage through, a rupture. A viewer's potential to follow-up passages of meandering soul. → View Series |
Similar motives I used in the Series Travel Moments. This time moods of colors mainly define and project singular atmospheres. Maybe some of these landscapes freely associate with views seen somewhere or dreamed about. More importantly, to me these landscapes may equal or symbolize internal, psychic settings. Inner places and feelings that possibly, and in an unexpected manner, may co-relate with what is (re)discovered on the actual picture. → Overview Photos >> Travel Moments / Reiseaufnahmen - Simone Distler (2013 Silkscreen with acrylics or oils on canvas, ca. 20,5cm x 28,5cm) |
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Gian Merlevede (40)
Working with acrylics offers a continual challenge. At a vernissage, years ago, a colleague blurred out: Don't you have any difficulties painting with acrylics? – Such dead material! Well, my colleague certainly made his point there. All the more, I can't but admit the difference. Oil colours with their velvet skin and unparallelled radiance of pigments! Nevertheless, acrylics as a medium stand in their own right. Theirs is a versatile and layered realm, not to mention their speed and the possibilities with an array of additives.
On the one hand I often design pictures around a specific theme or metaphor. On the other hand I also paint pictures without any given agenda, just for sports.
One way or another my paintings often explore the unaltered reality of the biblical theses for todays "modern" world.
On the one hand I often design pictures around a specific theme or metaphor. On the other hand I also paint pictures without any given agenda, just for sports.
One way or another my paintings often explore the unaltered reality of the biblical theses for todays "modern" world.
Glowing Throne (above Mansfeld country) (2013, work in progress)
As viewers we find ourselves on a winding road at dusk. Alone on a winterly hill, amidst of snowcovered fields. Soft evening light bades the surrounding hills. Above our heads, against the open sky, a vast stormsystem is coming in. Truely a dramatic sight. Above the fierce storm something spectacular is pearcing through: An empty throne seat burning hot, radiant like a furnace. This celestial throne stands as a warning sign for the presence of Heaven. An indication of the coming of the Sovereign-Strong, the age-after-age Living One, the Creator dwelling above the Heavens. The Was, The Is, The Coming. He is the actual Owner of all souls on earth. The true Lover of mankind, the God about to arrive, the Christ riding the clouds, who will be seen by every eye. (See also The Bible: Revelations 1:7-8) |
The Jacob's Ladder (2013) is the kind of painting that was birthed totally intuitively. I was looking for something else really, then this visual metaphor appeared. It took me some years to accept the picture as finalised. This and that seemed unfinished. In the end, I refused to start picking and ruin delicate balances. Finally I made my peace.
Slightly similar with the painting Glowing Throne (above Mansfeld country) a celestial dimension falls from the sky. I recall Genesis 28 in the Bible, where young Jacob has to flee after swindling his brother Esau, bereaving him of the fatherly blessing. One night on his flight, sleeping in the open, Jacob is given a visionary dream, encountering the One true God, offering Jacob, by mere grace, full protection and awesome blessing. In the dream Jacob saw a "stairway" (or "ladder") resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it, stood the Supreme One. Waking from the dream revelation Jacob reacted with a worshipping heart, saying: This is he gate of heaven! And making a vow he pledged his allegiance to the Awesome One. The central idea here, is God's protective presence (cf. Biblical Commentary by Allen P. Ross - Bibelwissen, Hänssler Verlag). I am a bit surpised with the black underpainting of the straight shape lashing down from the sky. I keep musing about that. |
Subterranean Soul's Escape (2013)
To me this visual metaphor embodies the feeling of a psychological change-over, a radical shift. Like an emotional meltdown in the aftermath of suffering, the bearing of pain or distress. The composition mediates a contrastive atmosphere. Like seeing daylight again while surfacing after an underground exploration through a cave system. To me this picture delivers a freeing sensation. Like the rescue of a caver from a situation of being stuck in a cave passage, the release from some kind of labyrinthian nausea. The passage through the seedy underworld of one's own psyche seems of paramount importance when it comes to finding oneself and God the Creator. The entanglement hazard is high. Finding one's way out can be a real challenge. Often help is needed. A seasened christian myself, I have at times encountered just this kind of help by the Holy Spirit, the rescue from spiritual chasms, hopelessness or the intractability of wounds. From lightless labyrinthian caves I was washed upstream, and out in the reassuring daylight. Finding a new breath, embracing life again. |
Copyright: Merlevede-Distler 2013