Om Red, Hot and Blue

17-01-2013 Vist: 432 gange.

Reducing landscape to pure sensation, and then taking that sensation and transforming it into raw color, Sys Oppenlander attacks her canvases with an emotive fervor akin to the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940’s and ‘50s. “I grew up in a colorless, flat, windy, and cold environment,” claims the Copenhagen native-turned North Carolinian artist, ‘Through my travels, I found breathtaking new surroundings - in which vibrant colors, exotic flavors and sizzling temperatures flourished.” These very colors translate directly onto Oppenlander’s canvas with emphatic mark-making. In pieces such as Beyond the Sea, a range of blues—from the deep to the vibrant—warp and weave into each other as liquids churned by tidal forces. The roller-and-rag effect of the marks emphasize distortion, evoking a sensation of being underwater—perhaps fighting through cold, hidden currents—attempting to reach a cavernous expanse which remains elusively out of reach. In contrast, Red, Hot and Blue provokes a mild warming effect. The title itself is the key: Red (comma) Hot and Blue. It is a well understood color theory principle that red is a warm color, but the syntax of the title suggests that the color red, in this case, is not only hot, but also blue. The blue tones of the canvas are shocking, electric, almost plasmafied—the ejecta of a supernova. Weaving these two tones together and juxtaposing semantics sires a new perception and understanding of color. Your red has just been served up, hot and blue, for your sensory pleasure. The nebulous treatment of the strokes only serves to further the sensation of being engulfed by this hot, blue red. Complete sensory immersion in Oppenlander’s work, while perhaps, unintentional, is unavoidable.