Rebecca Lindsmyr: Blinded, Alta Art Space

‘In 2007 John Kelsey wrote that “Painting in the information age has one task and one task only: to seduce the cyborg. To pretend that no gap could ever keep them apart.” This belonged in a tangled discussion on the status of the painterly subject. In the years to come, one text after another was laid out: on the painter versus its larger network, on the indexical mark of the hand and how it relates to digital reproduction.

This all goes hand in hand with intellectual dispositions on the deconstructions of the subject. Step by step we’ve invested decades in picking ourselves apart, and it’s possibly one of the more exciting things we’ve spent our efforts on. Power and language being torn to pieces. In the muck of a medium that is painting, the deconstruction of the painterly subject could still be said to be in full bloom, and when it comes to the network: at the time of writing, at least three key names on the international painting scene (all women, of course) have attributed their current large scale institutional solo shows to highlighting their networks; the work of peers in direct relation to their own. Love letters to their close ones.’ 

‘The act of isolating one gesture from its context forces one to define the beginning and end of this gesture. An act of interpretation, made for misunderstanding. As stated by Lacan, language is meant to be misunderstood, as we all attach our own meanings to the words we speak. Giving and receiving with clarity hence becomes an impossible task. Here, I wish to come back to the but in Kelsey’s note on seduction: “But it must not lose its stupidity either.” With that said, the inherent stupidity of painting and the subject it reflects – the stupidity of a trembling hand and of allowing oneself to be seduced. In quoting an other, the meaning most likely falls short. Yet, we quote, and believe we grasped the meaning. Yet, words rest in our mouths, and we swallow them whole.’

Alta Art Space