"Work and intention"
"Favourableness Images"
On the beginning of theses wars (Chechenia, Cosovo) i started painting this theme but i always felt some rejection from my visitors against the colors red, black and white which I had used. I had chosen red for the blood, black for the smoke of the fires and white for the fear and hopelessness of the people. - All together these three colors were supposed to underline these conflicts.
Day-to-day and hourly faced with a flood of informations about these wars by means of an electronic medium, the television, I finally merge this - together with telephone sex commercials which repeatedly appear alternating with the news during the nights - to the "electrical impressions" phase...
 - The men, the children and the war
In these paintings I tell about the despair of the people who find
themselves amidst a war, on the run, without knowing a safe place to go, not able to find protection for themselves, their children and family.
Since the people didn't want to deal with this - and I wanted them to at least ask themseleves what these paintings tried to tell - I discontinued the type of depiction and started to tell the same theme with pastel crayons on a rough paper. And these are "Favourableness Images" now.
The first one is named "See the blood in my hand!". A very stilized human being is sitting with a grimace, is mouth opened slightly as if he would want to tell us something. At a second glance the colors surrounding him are very earthy tones - he has not lost all his hope yet.
The second image "Back to water". The water extinguishing fire, the water of the embryonic phase. The cleaning water also as a part of the landscape he or she grew up or the one he returns back home to. The hand visible in front of a face thus gets rid of the invisible blood, cleaned.
Next image, imgage three:
"The one in the dawn, waiting for the solar cycles". I figure is sitting in the foreground partially illuminated. On the left side the sun rises or has alread risen on the right side it goes down or has already declined. Both suns meet to say goodbye soon again. A part of the figure gets darker. Dusk begins or is already there. The human being, alone on a residue of green thinks of it, waiting for new solar cycles.
Fourth: "View from another star". An eye, a hand in front of a mouth encyrcled by lights. As if a stranger from another star would gaze at us, astonished, horrified and stunned.
Fifth: "The call for help, one of many". A bizarre figure symbolizes a human being in the colors of fire, fused with the background. He or she rises the hands and cries let there be an end to that.
Sixt image: "The lost dignity". This image has intentionally not been painted in crayon but with acrylics and a similar effect in its structure. A woman can be recognized. Her neck is extremely long and
increases the speed of her flight. Her bosom is clearly implied as a signal of possible sexual abuse. This woman is runnaing away from the scene while she is in fear of being chased and without stopping she looks over her shoulder at her pursuers.
Seventh: "The hourly prayer". Again the sun has its role, represented by the colors an the way of their application. In this image there is neither a sunrise or sunset, the earth has slipped out of its balance. She is emitting almost the same color. The only thing that is left is the prayer - may it help. Somehow I am that myself on that image, it might hit all of us some time!
The eighth an last of this series:
"Stop! - I finally want peace", I think it needs no explanation.
Text: Ana de Medeiros, 1995
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