Winter air 2007

Curator: We are looking at Daan Lemaire’s piece entitled "Winter Air." It’s a matter painting using acrylic paint from 2007. What strikes you most when you first see it? Editor: An unsettling chill. The swirling blues and greys feel turbulent, like a storm is brewing just below the surface. It's very gestural and raw. Curator: Raw indeed. When we think about abstract expressionism, it emerged in a specific postwar context. The weight of that era shaped artistic expression and I think here it comes through in a more contemporary experience, touching on personal anxieties around the environment perhaps. Editor: I can see that. For me, those blue swathes, the way they dominate the composition, almost evoke a sense of drowning. Blue has often been connected with sadness and mourning across different eras, so it has a lasting impact on the viewer’s emotional state. Curator: And there's a tension created by that central mass of colour being held, or maybe constrained, within that grey background. I see it as a very internalised reflection on ecological fragility. In what ways do you think this echoes expressionist ideas in our own, present era? Editor: Well, consider how different cultures interpret monochrome, such as those grays we see in the artwork. In some, it signifies mourning, yes, but it can also signal resilience and strength through the stark simplicity in facing complex issues. Think also about the use of gesture…the splatter, drips. Curator: Absolutely, and I feel in "Winter Air", we are also seeing an emphasis on the experience, and what emerges when we embrace the emotional weight tied to that experience. Editor: It really urges one to think more profoundly about the symbolic weight these visuals carry within the context of an unraveling planet, particularly what we are witnessing now with rapid climate changes. Curator: That emotional rawness has really stuck with me. Editor: For me, it is about how we choose to project and imbue it within our understanding of change and history.