The longing is there to start with

The longing is there to start with. A vague, anonymous, unspoken urge, an attraction to certain things.

Material can only behave in the way predetermined by its own inherent nature. Minimal material effects can be seen in the overall effect achieved. Pigment must organise itself, so that it reveals something of its own nature.

 

As an artist, one needs to step aside slightly, to step back from one’s own will, to relinquish something of one’s own egotistical presence – and thus give space to the complex of effects created by the pigment.

 

At a certain stage during the creation process, this independent will which colour possesses suddenly turns out to be a means of creating a certain colour quality.

 

Even so, I am not concerned with „effects“, although I work with minimal material effects. It is like walking a tightrope. It is important not to instrumentalise these phenomena, but to allow them to exist in their own right.

 

Cage calls that the „presentational character“ of art. Sounds in their own right, colour in its own right. Work of this nature cannot create an effect; it needs, quite simply, to be. And in this ‚being‘, it can be seen in absolutely everything we perceive. Everything has a presence.

 

Renate Balda 2005