Metka Pepelnak (SI)
Text written by GHA
Metka Pepelnak’s small format prints on handmade paper depict intertwining organic structures and patterns.
Making paper from reusable materials, the Slovenian artist explores paper as an almost sculptural material to create organic constellations of growth and variations resembling natural forms such as tree roots or corals. The images thereby gain concrete textures and a raw identity, further rendered by profound contrasts between the white structures and the backgrounds of pitch-black circles. The dark circles might bring associations to outer space, black holes, the deep sea – or simply to a fundamental contrast between creation and nothingness.
On this backdrop, the organic compositions are left both fragile and strong, conquering and clutching the emptiness with their branch-like limps. It is significant how small and large scales, perspectives and patterns come together in Pepelnak’s magnifying views, which function simultaneously as telescopes and microscopes. It is difficult to decide whether we are seeing the motifs enlarged or reduced; rather, we could be looking at cosmic nebulae and bacterial structures at the same time. This leaves the impression that worlds are created out of nothing, and the elegant treatment of the paper is a tribute to paper as an invaluable medium for creative expression, used by writers and artists alike to create entire universes.
In Pepelnak’s prints, the viewer is invited to take part in this creational process by witnessing the growth of organic structures, considering at once the largest and the smallest creations.
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