Barbara Shunyi (ES)
Text written by GHA
The aquatints of Spanish artist Barbara Shunyi present a multi-layered pattern of tangled lines. In varying shapes and structures, they explode in a rich display of textures that leaves a floral impression.
The linework deviates between sharp and smudged, coarse and transparent, spacious and compiled. Through this network of textures, a dimensionality is established that asserts the presence of the different layers in space. The lines are uncontrolled and expressive, exploring every corner of the paper. Brown, grey and bluish tones combine into a neutral colourpalette. The earthy tones make the linework roughly resemble flower petals and muddy soil, swept out by the rain.
Organic and free, the splattered ink stains allow the viewer’s imagination to run off with Shuyni’s abstract designs. A sense of symmetry here and there in the unruly composition leaves the prints reminiscent of inkblot tests. The mess of lines is highly associative, letting the audience hunt for recognizable forms. Some lines seem to be almost shaped like letters, leaving hints of a hidden message, obsessively crossed out.
The prints emphasise the viewer’s feeling of the artist’s movement as they follow the directions of the lines, rendering the forms kinetically attractive. They invite the viewer to be captivated by this feeling and create such patterns themselves.
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