In this new series of paintings, ranging from large to minuscule sizes, light swirls and ripples around the space of the canvas with varying intensity and color. Paintings originate in spontaneous snapshots of glasses of water, caught in light and held in suspension, or of silken surfaces of swimming pools. They offer a meditation on the abilities of water to reflect, distort, and refract—in other words abstract—perception. Encounter, zoom in, crop. Indistinct shapes, light blurs, disfiguration and warped shadows are all welcome on the canvas.
The body of work is a continuation of Matina Partosa’s practice of treating painting as an act of expanding consciousness. Common notions of perception and boundaries between the self and the cosmos are resolved, invoking a flowing feeling of oneness with the external— termed as oceanic feeling by French writer Romain Rolland. Most of the works are entitled ‘Maya’ which, in ancient Indian philosophies, mean either ‘illusion’ or ‘magic’. If the universe is an illusion, it is an illusion we can learn to swim in.
Narcissus looks into the water and sees herself. Sees the self, and everything that is not the self. The clouds and foliage dancing in the sky above, the cocktail from the speakeasy, a 17-minute walk from home, the pizza we ate before watching the latest blockbuster in the cinema, the fallen leaves and dying bugs. The wind ripples the surface, warping the images and jumbling everything together. The water looks cool and inviting. Narcissus dives in.
