Page 89 - Steppe - Aigana Gali

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (Republic This is the spark that ignites her process,
514a–520a), is a story that compares "the eect of education ("#$à&'#) and the lack of it on our nature". We might
see the artist as philosopher, once a prisoner in the cave, who comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not actually reality at all. The allegory outlines Plato’s theory of Forms, which proposes it is these "Forms" (or "Ideas"), and not the material world known to us through sensation, that possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. In this sense, it was only after Aigana left her homeland that she began to articulate her essential feelings about it.
“It did not come easily, I had to teach myself how to create this eect. Essentially I am veiling with light washes of watered down colour on canvas. I start with huge brushes in really big physical gestures to cover the whole picture plane.You cannot do it quickly. You have to apply one layer of colour, wait until it is completely dry, then apply another and wait again. It is a lengthy process, and works like a musical score - with each new layer resonating with the one beneath. I then finish the painting with my finger tips, using oil which dries slowly. I dance around the painting, touching it in dierent places to produce vibrational tones, synonymous with the flickering of light in the steppe.”
“sometimes it's a vibrational thing, others it’s a particular colour, a pale shimmer of gold for example. When it’s about vibration I always want to dance, and when I dance I get into an unconscious kind of working mode.” In her studio, the artist creates the conditions in which these visions and memories can manifest. Like a seeker, fasting in the desert, she deprives herself of everything so that she can be alone with that which she is bringing forth.
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