sensaflux – new works by Vera Möller.
the city – the most striated of all possible assemblages. obviously. but also, the most platonic – humanity rectifying nature. the sea – the smoothest of all possible assemblages. maybe. but definitely the most organic – organisms confining life.
but what about abstraction – do we find abstraction in the city and the sea? in the city? yes, sometimes. sometimes, we find mechanical but free, inorganic yet alive assemblages, but not often enough. in the sea? yes, but, this time, it is an abstraction of the organic, the alive, the almost-free. almost free, except for the organic assemblages that confine life. almost-free to accrete, coexist, attach, and repel. but, beware! the same abstract machines that create, can also devastate.
in the city some can touch, smell, hear, taste, and see. and of course, there is always gravity. via our SENSES, we perceive striations that allow us to make some SENSE of the world – a world we ourselves have highly striated.
divers don’t SENSE any of these things as well. yes, we can touch, but only if we are not wearing gloves. we can smell, but only the inside of our diving mask. we can hear, but not sound as we know it. we can taste, but only the rubber of our regulator, or our previous meal, or toothpaste, or the occasional mouthful of salt water we have to swallow if things aren’t going so well. we can see, but due to a lack of light, and the material suspended in the water, not as far, and not as clearly. yes, there is colour. colour everywhere, but as we know, it fades in poor light. did i mention we don’t have gravity – we have buoyancy control vests.
this lack of articulation smooths the space we are in. sometimes, it is only the bubbles leaving our regulator that give us any information about the outer world. luckily, we always have our inner world to keep us company. however, that inner world can be a source of fear, especially in an ever-increasing smooth space.
there are countless blocs of SENSATION in Möller’s work. somehow, these compositions, these articulations, these finite assemblages (of paint, canvas, clay, paper, colour, texture), they expose us to the infinities of existence – both below and above the water. they change our perceptions and affect us immediately. but, more importantly, they continue to do so over time – in ways we can’t even begin to imagine.
Steve Whitford, 2023.