Where intuition touches reason
All too often I wonder: when are you fully into art? Is it when you are in the moment, in the alertness of your consciousness? Or because you are able to let the environment penetrate you with an open mind? Among other things, you are influenced by your environment in the way you look at something. You often discover it from a slow process because you experience something intensely, are busy with something or look at something. That can be an exciting experience. Art also has this effect. This fascinates me immensely because you cannot send it in advance, it just happens to you. Wondering is a natural consequence of this. But it's not as easy as it looks here, I guess. That's why it's so exciting.
Some examples. When I see a blooming sunflower field, I immediately experience the impression of a painting of sunflowers by Van Gogh. Or a look at Mondrian's "Broadway Boogie Woogie" immediately makes me happy. And melancholy looms when I take a long look at the work from the romanticism "Der Wanderer" by Casper David Friedrich. So art does something to your mind and can bring you close to yourself. At the same time, it can give you a meaningful impression. By looking, listening, feeling and experiencing the mind also comes to life more.
Thus, I became fascinated by the sculptures of Cecilia Vissers. Her work is, among other things, made of carefully selected hot-rolled steel plates; the skin of the sheet metal is critically assessed for this. But the softer metal aluminium is also used, which furthermore facilitates a colour, through an anodizing process. The orange or silver coloured shapes are combined as a duality of colour contrasts. It shows as a natural change of day and night, a well-known phenomenon and yet perceptible differently every time.
Cecilia Vissers takes her inspiration from the rugged Scottish and Irish nature. She walks for days to take in the landscape. Each natural elemens such as rock, water, wind, cloud, sun -yes especially light- are essential for her. Nature does not ask for anything in return, it has always been itself. You may call Vissers a minimalist lyrical landscape artist. After all, Vissers feels strongly related to the landscape artist Richard Long. She also relates to the minimalists Donald Judd and Dan Flavin. She herself has often stayed in Marfa, Texas, where Judd's life work manifests itself in the landscape. Her work also refers to Robert Mangold. She is no stranger to the discipline of the abstract geometric artists and minimalists.
With the modern technique of water cutting, Vissers makes rectangular shapes, sparingly provided with carefully designed notches at the edges. This creates subtle areas of tension that relate to each other, reinforcing or softening each other. Vissers sometimes combine these rectangular shapes in one or more pairs of elements arranged together, creating spaces in between. These elements then reinforce each other in a balanced play of form and counter-form, of space and in-between space, of tension and redemption.
Such a sculpture is striking but also serene and enclosed in itself. The work looks tough and subtle at the same time, it sticks to your retina. It offers enormous freedom to watch, which I find a relief. Her works also have a certain monumentality regardless of format. They are present, at an appropriate distance, but not distant. Every time I look at it, I feel peace.
I experience exactly this experience time and again during my walks in the woods, on the beach, close to where the gallery is located. It varies from moments of joy to existential feelings of happiness. I also attribute this sublimation to the work of Cecilia Vissers, as an inexhaustible source of inspiration comparable to what nature offers us, comfort and tranquillity.
Frey Feriyanto, April 2021