Mona Dara
Watercolour, paper, 40x50 cm. 2011
During the different physical manipulations with watercolour on paper: layering, drying, washing, wiping, moving the tape, scratching with sandpaper, a time of reflection appears as an essential component in a gradual process of both self-redefining and aesthetic spiritualisation of the emotional layers. I deprived watercolour from its usual technical freshness and liveliness, and applied condemnation by strict borders with the chosen sharp shapes.
My circumstances meant that I was forced to stay in a small town in the North of Sweden while waiting for my visa extension - I could not go abroad for long. My feeling of being a prisoner within forced civil norms was reflected in the painting very purely.
Mona Dara is a name of the officer at Migration board who worked on my case. I could reach her by phone only one day a week between 10.00 and 11.00
"I feel the need to attain the maximum of intensity with the minimum of means. It is this which has led me to give my painting acharacter of even greater bareness." Joan Miro
