Misha Kligman’s large scale wall installation “kaleidoscope” consists of individual painted paper tiles organized in a grid. The grid structure complicates the traditional pictorial space, where the viewer is immersed in a singular unfolding moment. Instead, referencing a calendar, each painted piece of paper can be understood as its own moment in time. In this manner, the experience becomes cumulative in nature. Time of the” kaleidoscope” is felt as fractured and self-replicating – mirroring and repeating fragments, rather than being infinite and undivided. The sensuality of paint and surface is purposefully undermined, and made unexpressive. Rawness of mark-making and material handling is an attempt to remain unmoved and sober in the face of the seductive potential of painting. The panoramic arrangement of stained and marked surfaces gives way to photographic snapshots. Printed images of blooming flowers, children, political protests and ubiquitous landscapes mingle together with painted abstractions. The work imagines discrete moments gathered together in a cinematic experience where banality and significance dissolve into one another.
“kaleidoscope”, 388″x66″, flashe on paper
