The Black

The Black is a black basin inspired by the black lake of Kelimutu in Indonesia. On its dark water float folded black and white canvases, touched with hints of gold.

Resembling ethereal rocks, the canvases create an otherworldly perception that blends the natural and spiritual worlds. Black, a colour that encapsulates all colours, ties back to Kelimutu’s transformative waters and to introspective themes of origin and destiny; the gold, a material believed to be celestial in origin, introduces the mystical and the eternal.

Part of the Pliage series, this work emerges from a process in which painting and sculpture become inseparable. The canvas is first folded and shaped into a temporary sculptural form, after which Indian ink is poured across its surface and left to flow through the folds under the forces of gravity, absorption, and erosion.

Once unfolded, the fabric reveals the traces of this process: accumulations, fractures, and fluid trajectories formed beyond the artist’s direct control. In some works, the canvas is subsequently folded again into a new configuration, allowing the image to remain in a state of continual transformation.

More about the process in About My Pliage Painting Approach.

Shown at

Flow Through the Colors, Rubinetterie Stella, Fonderia Napoleonica Eugenia, Milan Design Week, 2024