Judit Reigl: Unfolding

Description

This catalog was published on the occasion of an exhibition at Janos Gat Gallery from April 2 – May 30, 2009.

Judit Reigl executed these often monumental canvasses by walking along them, leaving graphic-pictorial traces that follow the rhythmic, continuous movement of her stroll. In a recent interview, Judit Reigl described Unfolding with the following words: “The paint that I apply in waves on one side of the canvas seeps through and appears instantly, as distinct particles, on the other. Think of the double nature of light, conforming at once to wave mechanics and to particle physics. I have arrived at a kind of cursive script, an undulating writing in which the thick enamel that I apply on one side appears dispersed on the back. This material is incompatible with the acrylic wash that I then spread over the other side of the fabric, mounted horizontally on a temporary stretcher. In this second phase the oily paint interacts with the acrylic in the way that duck feathers repel water. The struggle that takes place gives, in the ultimate phase, the amazing result with the correct view of the painting. Life is construction and destruction. For me a painting should simultaneously incarnate and obliterate itself. ‘Unfolding’ is the ongoing act of finding the fixed source that would allow this contrary movement.”