Surgery of the Soul

The ‘Surgery of the Soul’ is where those processes take place which lead to purification; the place in which the spiritual process acquires a material dimension. It is a kind of studio or workshop – in this case, the studio of the artist. What we have here is a painted installation, featuring one large work and 300 small sketches which have escaped the painted table of the artist and float freely in the air, leading to a series of fascinating reversals: it subverts the three-dimensional illusion of the painted canvas, as well as the conventional relationship of painting to drawing, recognizing in the drawing the essential force of expression. It also overturns the inaccessible, private nature of artistic activity – opening it up to the spectator with open-handed generosity. This is a work which through its introversion, its self-referential and confessional darkness finally succeeds in speaking of freedom and light. A work in progress – as in the studio of the artist.