Skip to main content

Faces: eyes wide open, eyes closed in meditation

The exhibition “Faces” by Austrian artist, Georg Wachberg, opened at Europe House, Freedom Square, in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Friday evening. It has a brief showing until 30 April, 2014.

The solo exhibition displays 38 artworks; some are screen ink on paper, but many are oil on used cardboard, which the artist collected from his environment. Consequently, although some are “untitled” others are named after a numeral or phrase on the cardboard or other material, such as “589” - “item no. 83033” - and “ingrid nairz kollectionen” (from the entrance ticket to an art gallery) – all oil on used cardboard.

Many have their eyes closed. Wachberg says “the faces have their eyes closed because they pray and meditate. It is this moment when all the anxieties, sadness as well as the greed and ambition move and make room for something that seems more profound to me: inner peace” (from Europe House’s Facebook page).

With eyes closed, the images do seem, as the artist says, in contemplation, and at peace. But the images with their eyes wide open depict a more melancholic aura, or a sense of bewilderment and confusion. Each face, while seemingly of the same ilk, is expressively unique: some haunting, some whimsical, some peaceful, and some tragic. The colours reflect their moods too – beige, blue-grey, white, black, and a touch of red – of red nose, flushed cheeks, or blood-shot eyes. Age is almost indeterminate – yet there are no children’s faces; these are the faces of people who have a story to tell: of love and loss, of sadness, possibly madness, and certainly of memories.

My favourites were the serene “white face” (oil on used canvas), “one old woman” (oil on used canvass), “woman and sky” (oil on used canvas) with her shock of red hair, an untitled piece of a man with his eyes closed, and “A Portrait of an Unknown Human” (a combination of screen ink and oil). All are fascinating, especially if the face is compartmentalized – looking at each discrete feature – in an effort to determine whether they are part of one person or several people, as the artist says: “I used to paint real people, but now they are the offspring of my imagination, or better to say their features derive from the many people I see every day. A young woman would lend me the shape of a nostril, an old man might give me the shadow underneath his eyes, a third a structure of wrinkles on the forehead.” And I like the wrinkles on the forehead.


www.wachberg.at
www.europehousegeorgia.org









MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing
1 comment
Read more