Tschilisole with Flowers 2013

Manuela Sambo made "Tschilisole with Flowers" using, it seems, some kind of paint and a lot of meticulous drawing. You know, the way the body’s pale green is outlined with these henna-like, tattoo-like marks really makes me think about the way we decorate ourselves, or even decorate walls. I love that the paint itself is pretty flat, almost like a fresco, but then she comes along and adds all this detail. Look at her hands and feet. These darker marks aren’t just decoration, they’re part of the figure itself, like some kind of vital energy. There’s a sort of tension here, between the flatness of the paint and the depth of the detail, that reminds me a bit of some of Gustav Klimt’s portraits, where the figures are almost swallowed up by these elaborate patterns. It feels almost ritualistic or ceremonial to me. Like she's adorning the picture surface, bit by bit, in a dedicated act of mark making.