Ina Bierstedt

Opening: Saturday, February 14, 2004, 7pm
Duration: February, 17 through March, 20, 2004

When looking at Ina Bierstedt’s artwork, the eye is first drawn to the objects that appear to give sense to the pieces. At a first glance they seem to be hidden within landscapes. However, after looking carefully, the artistic style – the play between abstraction and representation – becomes increasingly irritating. There is no absolute certainty that we are really looking at a landscape. The setting is too faulty, the content too fragmented. At best, the disproportionately large yet vague details in the pictures appear to be fractured memories in an impenetrable fog of hazy thoughts. And just like these, they can hardly be pinned down, but blend further into the background. On the whole, the apparent objects conceal what they represent and, as a result, are of no help to the confused eye of the observer.
But precisely herein lies the appeal and the special quality of Ina Bierstedt’s work: with tense allusions between the back- and foreground she creates spaces within the picture, which, at a second glance, do not remain static. They hint at the content but then question everything. It is only during the creative process that the artist finds the painting’s final form. Obvious second coats of paint, intrusions on the composition’s original idea, are evidence of this. With each new layer, Ina Bierstedt manages to increase the artistic intensity of the painting.