Ansuya Blom
06 Sep - 18 Oct 2008
ANSUYA BLOM
"The Fall"
The description of the human being has been a theme for Ansuya Blom for many years. In the exhibition 'The Fall' she approached this topic from the fear of scary words such as 'guilt', 'anxiety' and 'sin'. Words that are closely connected with notions of command and punishment. In the exhibition 'The Fall' Ansuya Blom has made use of the pages of the book 'The Concept of Anxiety' by Søren Kierkegaard, over which she has drawn black and red brown ants in a manic way. And above all legs of ants. Their bodies, legs and tentacles have placed over those words which the artist experienced as uncomfortable or even fearsome. A shut down of the swarming of the unconscious? Or mostly an exorcization of the ''dizziness of freedom'' which appears when Kierkegaard's character Vigilius Haufniensis stands at the abyss of freedom with the liberty to make a choice by surrendering to the impulse of being engulfed by the abyss or to fearfully make a quick turnaround in order to avoid a deadly fall.
Ansuya Blom has found a humourous but equally humane solution by obliterating those fear-invoking words of 'The Concept of Anxiety' with the bodies and legs of her drawn ants. The human being is fearful of making the wrong choices and according to Kierkegaard he is incapable of saving himself, however, Ansuya Blom is. She wards off those 'severe words' by seeking them out and covering them.
In other works of the exhibition a white leg of an ant just barely covers a red surface, and ochre tentacles appear to attack a shimmering world of intestines. It is difficult for the human soul to avoid the fear of being attacked by words of others, or ward off other attacks from the external world. Choices are what we have to make do with.
"The Fall"
The description of the human being has been a theme for Ansuya Blom for many years. In the exhibition 'The Fall' she approached this topic from the fear of scary words such as 'guilt', 'anxiety' and 'sin'. Words that are closely connected with notions of command and punishment. In the exhibition 'The Fall' Ansuya Blom has made use of the pages of the book 'The Concept of Anxiety' by Søren Kierkegaard, over which she has drawn black and red brown ants in a manic way. And above all legs of ants. Their bodies, legs and tentacles have placed over those words which the artist experienced as uncomfortable or even fearsome. A shut down of the swarming of the unconscious? Or mostly an exorcization of the ''dizziness of freedom'' which appears when Kierkegaard's character Vigilius Haufniensis stands at the abyss of freedom with the liberty to make a choice by surrendering to the impulse of being engulfed by the abyss or to fearfully make a quick turnaround in order to avoid a deadly fall.
Ansuya Blom has found a humourous but equally humane solution by obliterating those fear-invoking words of 'The Concept of Anxiety' with the bodies and legs of her drawn ants. The human being is fearful of making the wrong choices and according to Kierkegaard he is incapable of saving himself, however, Ansuya Blom is. She wards off those 'severe words' by seeking them out and covering them.
In other works of the exhibition a white leg of an ant just barely covers a red surface, and ochre tentacles appear to attack a shimmering world of intestines. It is difficult for the human soul to avoid the fear of being attacked by words of others, or ward off other attacks from the external world. Choices are what we have to make do with.