artist - siv grava
"For many years I have chosen to live in isolated desert country where the
energy of the earth is raw and people are thin on the ground.
I’ve studied both sciences and art, painted for 26 years, worked with Central
Australian indigenous communities, multicultural groups in Melbourne and Baxter
Detention Centre, am a child of Latvian refugees with an interest in eastern phiolosphies.; - there is a myriad of ways to describe oneself. Our individual perception
is largely an assemblage of our accumulated experience and bias, personal memory
and association.
I mention this because I feel we cannot look at a piece of land / the world except
through a filter of our collected knowledge and experience. The same piece of land will
have different meaning to the historian, the miner, the farmer the artist, the indigenous
person.
Over my life I have been exposed to a number of different styles of visual art
from a variety of cultures. I have specifically combined visual languages to convey the
complexity of my experience, but choose to use an underlying traditional European
format/ traditional perspective;- because that is my underlying heritage.
Philosophically I am fascinated by the ‘nebulous’ vision of our universe that
science describes - the blurred interface between surface and structure, matter and
energy.- the elasticity of time.
Years of (sporadic) meditation have given me the sense that the surface is
precarious, a thin veneer. Reality seems to me quite fluid and ephemeral, with its
fragmentariness quite slippery and ungraspable.
In the act of painting in my new style, I was painting mark upon mark on the the underpaint. The underpaint started to take on a significance of its own. It was like each
mark I made was the atom placed on the energy beneath .
Basic chemistry teaches us that objects are formed from constantly moving sub
atomic particles held together by a web of energy. ;- creating a sense of solidity .
As time went on this sense that the mark was the atom shifted. The underpaint
was still the underlying energy but each mark became the thought, the philosopy, the
perception creating a surface.
As our gaze runs over the landscape one thought follows another, constantly
mapping our surroundings ;-The mind runs over the hills, like tracks forming and shaping
our world. We map each curve, each contour. Like graffitti, we forge our own reality -
slowly covering, defining, and creating meaning - exposing our own multilayered
preconceptions - and ultimately obscuring the true nature of land.
When I realised that my work was was not conveying adequately the ideas
behind it, I looked for ways to bring the complexity of multi layered thoughts overlaying
the landscape to the work.
I became interested in integrating patterning and symbols. There were a number
of influences to my work at that time. Travelling to Vanuatu I became fascinated by
exposure to a new culture. I was also excited by some highly intricate patterned,
ancient Arabic artwork from Tunis, while doing a private commission in Melbourne. -
mosaics, intricate metalworks, carvings and painting. Over time I’ve integrated symbols
of significance from a number of different traditions, for example latvian traditional
weaving patterns and personal symbols.
So these thoughts give some background to the creation of the paintings. . We
are all underlyingly interested in what does exists beyond the bounds of our limited
vision. These paintings seek in a small way to engage with the obscurity and ambiguity
of our experience in this world that come with being human."
All works can be bubble wrapped and posted.
Click on images to view
more details, including prices.
To purchase, please contact Jacqueline on:
m. 0412 587 438
