Dec 14

Dec 14 Svenja Deininger

Untitled, 2012, oil on canvas, 50 x 65 cm

“These are images that cannot be thought up this way”: Svenja Deininger’s works are the result of a process-like way of working.

“Mind and intuition are both involved in the process, which has no pre-established ending. A conscious decision not to fall into methodologies turns on welcoming the reoccurrence of a problem or chance. The practice is a sort of negative form of excavation.”

- Agata Jastrzabek

Untitled, 2015, oil on canvas, 70 x 190 cm

Untitled, 2015, oil on canvas, 230 x 150 cm

Untitled, 2013, oil on canvas, 210 x 120 cm

There are no predefined image ideas. Deininger often starts out from a form; she works in layers and coatings of colours and materials, repaints and uncovers. Primer, raw canvas, opaque areas and varnished parts convey various materialities; the visible surface of a painting is the result of the many underlying layers which often become visible at the edges of an image as overlays. At times, an unexpected line or drawing appears on the image area, consciously placed as a memory or quotation of a previous idea which was covered by new layers in the process of painting. Such parts can prompt the viewer to move closer to the image, to take a closer look; they do not meet concrete expectations, no technical effect is revealed.