snw.17 Print

Jessica Muller (Bergen, Germany, 1963) In the beginning, the canvas was empty. Jessica Muller creates with color and paint (her handwriting) a new visual space in which distance and nearness are synchronous. "The work starts from zero: emptiness, meaninglessness, without any preconception, nor is there a preconceived image to aim at," Jessica explains. And "The whole work is a timeless "˜being', originated from a piling up of instantaneous actions which together are to be its opposite: timeless or limitless. The result is a view into different dimensions at the same time." From nothingness all originates; all is nothing. The agreements we've made and the thoughts we dedicate to these agreements make the world look like it does. We are never to know if the meaning of what we see is the same for each of us. For every human being the word is connected with a manifestation. In creational mysticism, it is "˜In the beginning was The Word'. What is then the meaning of the image? The imitation of the word? Or does the image exist autonomously, without words? In my paintings, I am in search of the autonomous image. The work starts from scratch: empty, meaningless. There is no such thing as a preconceived plan, not a preconceived image to match. De-attachment of the picture. The entire existence is a timeless "˜being', arising from an accumulation of instantaneous snapshots that are timeless and boundless. What rests is a glance at different dimensions at the same time. In the process of painting, my material - canvas, and paint - is my point of departure. With my material, I am searching to go beyond the well-known effects to reach unknown territory where it is exciting to discover new possibilities. It is the territory of emptiness, of not knowing. Here one meets one's intuition which is unpredictable and undomitable. The intuition determines the angle of incidence of the actions - the snapshots - and together with my professional observation and judgment the ultimate result, the painting. In this intuitive process, it is my commission to find a solution in the material, a way out so that all kinds of niches, side scenes, and sluices originate - in the layers of paint as well as in my consciousness. I compare this process with the way one makes a trip through one's brain searching for an answer in abstraction. The incentive is the wish to find a way out through the material. Ultimately the aim is just being in a purification.