Har du nogensinde smilet for dig selv over en besked gemt i det åbenlyse? Et aftryk fra en fugl efterladt i sneen, væk før du kunne være sikker på, at du så det. En skyformation, der i et ophængt øjeblik antog formen af noget velkendt. Disse øjeblikke opstår uopfordret, synlige kun for os. Er de virkelige? Opfatter vi dem, eller giver vi dem selv mening? Hvor ender det forklarlige?
At forstå den menneskelige bevidsthed er en af menneskehedens ældste og mest flygtige bestræbelser. For den schweiziske psykiater Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) er et symbol ikke blot et tegn, men et levende billede, der peger mod noget endnu ikke fuldt erkendt – en bro mellem det bevidste og det ubevidste. Disse glimt antyder, at grænsen mellem den indre og ydre verden er langt mere porøs, end vi tillader os selv at tro, og at psyken konstant fører en tavs dialog med virkeligheden for at skabe mening i vores oplevelser.
Absher er fascineret af mønstergenkendelsens kraft, af hvordan sindet konstruerer vores virkelighed ud fra fragmenter og følelser, og af udfordringen ved at omsætte det uhåndgribelige til et fysisk, tredimensionelt lærred. Hendes praksis trækker på en konstellation af kilder: en livslang kærlighed til science fiction, formative oplevelser med dyb meditation, flettet sammen med et rastløst ønske om at presse både teknik og materiale videre.
Abshers levende malerier ændrer atmosfæren omkring dem. Hendes penselstrøg pulserer som strømme af ladede partikler, felter af kosmisk stråling, der venter på at blive frigivet. Under det tilsyneladende kaos træder skjulte figurer frem: spøgelser, engle, budbringere. Erotiske sendebud, der krydser fortid, nutid og fremtid, fastholdt samtidigt i én og samme flade. Hver overflade rummer sin egen arkæologi: uendelige lag af oliemaling, flere versioner begravet og omarbejdet. En metafor for tid, for hukommelse, for selvet i konstant revision.
I en tid, hvor vi i høj grad har outsourcet vores tænkning til skærme og enheder, hvor kroppen er trukket ud af erkendelsesakten, kalder Absher os tilbage til at følge vores egen intuition frem for at søge en fast fortolkning. Ligesom de symboler, vi opfatter, aldrig er helt faste, modstår hendes værker en endelig tolkning. De svæver flydende i grænselandet mellem abstraktion og figuration, og ingen to beskuere vil møde den samme betydning. Et sted mellem spirituel psykose og klar fortryllelse.
Lost Language er Caroline Abshers første soloudstilling hos V1 Gallery.
[ENG, original tekst]
Have you ever smiled to yourself at a message hidden in plain sight? A bird's imprint left in the snow, gone before you could be sure you saw it. A cloud formation that held, for one suspended moment, the shape of something familiar. These moments arrive uninvited, visible only to us. Are they real? Do we perceive them, or do we will them into meaning? Where does the realm of the explainable end?
In this exhibition, Caroline Absher explores the symbols that surface around us daily, and the ways in which we attempt to decipher them.
Understanding human consciousness remains one of humanity's oldest and most elusive pursuits. For Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), a symbol is not merely a sign, it is a living image pointing towards something not yet fully known, a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious. These flashes suggest that the boundary delineating inner and outer worlds is far more porous than we allow ourselves to believe, that the psyche is in constant, unspoken dialogue with the real to make sense of our experiences.
Absher is fascinated by the power of pattern recognition, by the way the mind constructs our reality from fragment and feeling, and by the challenge of rendering the intangible into the physical, three-dimensional canvas. Her practice draws from a constellation of sources: a lifelong love of science fiction, formative experiences of deep meditation, braided together with a restless desire to push both technique and material further.
Absher’s vivid paintings alter the atmosphere around them. The strokes of her brush pulse like streams of charged particles, fields of cosmic radiation waiting to be released. Beneath the apparent chaos, hidden figures emerge: ghosts, angels, messengers. Divine emissaries crossing past, present, and future, held simultaneously within a single surface. Each surface conceals its own archaeology: infinite layers of oil paint, multiple versions buried and reworked. A metaphor for time, for memory, for the self in perpetual revision.
At a moment when we have largely outsourced our thinking to screens and devices, when the body has been withdrawn from the act of knowing, Absher calls us back to following our own intuition rather than seeking a fixed reading. Just as the symbols we perceive are never entirely fixed, her works resist final interpretation. Hovering fluidly at the threshold of abstraction and figuration, no two viewers will encounter the same meaning. Somewhere between spiritual psychosis and lucid enchantment.
Lost Language is Caroline Absher's first solo exhibition with V1 Gallery.
Kilde:
V1 / Eighteen
V1 / Eighteen