For several years, my work has consisted of a series of paintings, generally in square format, on which I have developed an « all over » effect obtained by a methodical repetition of imprints. I lay down the paint regularly at the rhythm of my breath within the limits of my physical endurance. This contact (touch of pressure) is repeated, untiringly back and forth, from right to left, and from left to right, dot per dot, just like a woven oriental carpet. I grew up in the midst of oriental rugs and, perhaps they have subconsciously led to a pictural writing. Besides the actual gesture of the making, my work also presents a duality between paint and its support which reveals itself as an oscillation, a confusion and sometimes even an inversion of the revealed/unrevealed, positive/negative, above/under oppositions. In the choice of the materials, I am simultaneously attracted by the visual and tactile aspect. The support induces the work-painting, it has its own presence, it dictates, in a way, its own rules. Specific effects can derive from the combination of these materials - support and paint - (i.e.: the instability and the malleability of the lead, the fragility and the milky translucidity of the canvas made of « marine polyester », the reflections of the iridescent paint). Those effects belong to the material, already characterising it. Thus, the material introduces the dimension of its intrinsic qualities. But it is never alone: colours (painting, tinting....), tools (sponge, fingers, wind....) and supports (canvas, marine polyester, cotton duck, wood, lead... or different kind of books) are not definable, but define the labour, the work, the painting. Since the invitation to work in Düsseldorf, my painting took a new turn. I started to unroll the canvas directly on the wall, leaving the edges rolled up. This leaves me a freer choice for presentation according to the space. As art and life are intertwined, my life nourishes all aspects of the process of my work. Therefore, following the « vertigos » that I had last year, I experimented with new forms of prints based on my memory of those sensations.

Aïda Kazarian

(Düsseldorf, 2001. Revised Brussels, 2002 & 2003)