Arte by Karin Schwarz

FACES THAT OBSERVE DREAMS

 About the works of "Oneiric Faces"  ...  by Gisela Berger

Dreams are, above all, stories full of duplicity and symbols. Oneiric Faces presents real characters of an imaginary world. Some of these creatures are sweet, others are scary, but all of them abdicate masks; they let their souls leave through the eyes and skin.

When we sleep, we see creatures similar to those. However, besides that, we ourselves are like them. That is how we feel; we see the world of dreams through those eyes and that strong feeling. In this place, you are what you feel, and the world is what you wish or fear. Oneiric Faces is a collection of characters that we can be in our frightful internal world.

Some of these beings confine their spirits inside and work as a vessel of the external world, holding everything and keeping it all inside. Others are depleted of themselves, because everything comes out of them but nothing can go in. Others, perhaps more evolved, let energy flow freely in both ways. And there are still those ones in which energy, life and the world go through all directions, imaginable or not. They are gods in their worlds.

Among these souls there are the ones who want to maltreat, the ones who want to kill and the ones who want to play; the ones who want to hate and the ones who do. But all of them, from the mildest to the scariest, wish or once wished to love and to be loved. Each one of us can be all of them.

Esthetically, Karin's decision to represent in this piece the children, animals and plants, may be seen as if values and concepts were developed in several organic and energetic levels. It is not about using as many visual elements as possible such as monsters, fantastic creatures or cats. On the contrary, it is the purpose of comprising, in a single piece, archetypical and sub-archetypical representations that may compose a common universe. This endeavor may have brought to the whole some pieces that, in certain moments, do not belong to the general context.

On the other hand, if there is synergy between the pieces after all, one can consider the whole as a unique being, which produces completeness out of several unbalances. Considering that, observing the order in which pieces were organized is interesting. Along with timeline the sequence of pieces follows a script. The plot, with a realistic nature, covers the trip of the being that captures life since its beginning until the strong impact of consciousness. A journey that starts in the womb, reaches the truth and goes on. It is the story that ranges from innocence to pain.

Eventually, it consists of a concise but comprehensive piece, structured in several levels and whose totality goes in and remains in our consciences, spirits and bodies in a true and brave way. A piece that touches our most true existence, the one that contains the most of us, the one that can speak the most about us: our divine and relentless oneiric existence.


Gisela Berger 
2008 

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Gisela Berger is art critic and poet.
fonte: 
[presentation text on the art book "Oneiric Faces" by Karin Schwarz]