Rachel Jag | Beyond Utopia (Yellow)

Description

Rachel Jag | THE AURA OF A SPACE 

“VISUAL ART IS NOT A PASSION FOR ME, IT HAPPENS OUT OF NECESSITY”

Rachel Jag, a self-taught artist currently based in Vienna, was born in the former Soviet Union (Russia) in 1985.
After finishing at Sigmund Freud High School, she went on to study at the “Graphische,” a college for Print, Prepress, and Media Technology, after which she worked as a graphic designer and web developer. 

At a young age, she was involved in various music projects as a singer and songwriter and came to visual arts through listening to melodies that greatly impacted her. Since then, she has explored the relationship between color and sound and has moved to the artistic field of visual arts.

While many printing projects have followed, like screen printing on textiles and prints on paper, the relationship between color and sound kept bringing her back most strongly to the artistic field of visual arts. Drawn by melodies, the artist transforms fragments of compositions into shape and color combinations. Also, rhythmic elements are captured with her inner voice, leading a marker to be tapped onto the paper. Her works are often fragile and subtle, while on the other hand, often dramatic and bold.

“My artwork is never about what ‘I’ want to see; more importantly, it is about what is being shown to me and what comes through me. When it’s done, I just put it away; I don’t look for any single ‘interpretation’ or ‘message’ or some sort of translation into words. I prefer to call it a careful ‘approach’ to something undiscovered or even unknown. I might receive answers on an emotional level, but this could happen after several months, several years, or even never”.

“THE ESSENCE OF A SHORT MOMENT, OR EVEN A STRANGELY FAMILIAR SOUND, MAY LEAD TO A VERY DEEP ARTISTIC PROCESS ” 

Exploring the approach to the unknown, trying to get closer to the creative process of turning one flash of inspiration in a single moment into something with a life of its own, is the most fascinating to the artist. Every single step in the working process is never premeditated. Having trust and letting the ‘unknown be shown’ is often very challenging. The communication between the artist, the source of her inspiration, and what is being created on paper opens up new, unseen doors and unexplored fields.

THE AURA OF A SPACE 

This series is about giving space to split-second moments of inspiration. As has always been the case in Rachel’s work, the emotional message it contains is explored. The attempt is to perceive the ‘communication ‘, to see where it takes her.

Rachel’s new series of works represents shapes shown digitally in the form of dots. The artist here observes the digital working process in order to then explore how her perception of it compares with the material, physical working process. In the future, these pieces will follow in physical form to see what exactly happens emotionally and, above all, how deeply these two processes both run.

The idea to go digital arose originally from necessity – a moment of limited access to physical materials. At first, she created flying objects, light-emitting flower-like creations, and other indefinable forms. Having worked with rhythmic imagery in the past, she then returned to this way of working to see what forms would emerge as she explored ‚The aura of a space ‘. Once again, the artist returned to her original artistic approach, that everything comes about almost by itself or leaves her with endless questions on an emotional level. This idea of being both the creator and the observer at the same time fascinates her.

As always, every step of the process is done intuitively, from the choice of colors to the size and alignment of the dots. At the beginning, again, as always, there is a strong inner resistance, which then disappears as soon as the picture takes form.