Tulipa sylvestris

2019. Indian ink on canvas, 96 × 117 × 5 cm.

When unfolding the canvas I saw this beautiful Tulipa sylvestris; it is as if the painting was telling us its name.

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.