“Landscape. Time. Line” exhibition at the Daugavpils Culture Palace
From 22 October to 30 March, the Daugavpils Culture Palace offers the solo exhibition of Norwegian artist and art historian Beate Gjersvold – “Landscape. Time. Line”.
What is TIME? There is no simple explanation for the concept. It is hard to define and understand. Philosophy, religion, science and arts all have different definitions. Is it literally possible to measure Time? We have clocks and a system based on seconds, minutes and hours, and still, we can’t define it exactly. What is five minutes? And five hours? We have all experienced Time passing slowly or running fast. Sometimes one hour feels like two. Or the other way round.
In my landscape paintings, I use watercolour to contemplate what I call “the traces of Time”, drawing inspiration from the forms, colours and objects in nature. I focus on everything that creates lines in a landscape – the stripes left by planes in the blue sky… the pattern of power lines against the clouds… poles, trees and branches… architecture… the horizon… silhouettes and formations. On an abstract level, the physical lines I paint can also be interpreted as timelines. Through them, I capture the feeling of passing Time. Some of my works contain nothing but lines and have time-related titles. So, in a sense, I create compositions with both lines and words. All languages have myriad words related to the concept of TIME, such as past, present, future, hour, minute, clock, tomorrow, fast, slow and many more. Over the past three years, I have delved deep into the concept of TIME. And still, I grapple with the ultimate question: what is TIME? It is difficult to understand what it really means. We are all familiar with Time, yet it remains a perpetual mystery.
Beate Gjersvold
