Radu Şerban, April 2006
The reproductions in this catalog (Radu Șerban / Traces) rely on a concept which brings up the intent of interdisciplinarity, of creative interweaving of established techniques and newer means of artistic expression, going in three distinct directions of examining the expression of the image, configurated through a differentiated stylistic approach, in connection with the materials and techniques used. The media of interest are:
1. Painting. The comment of the paintings from the ‘Traces’ cycle indicates a chosen road, which leads to a cleansing of the shapes through the expressive conciseness of the gesture and through a free treatment of colour. Colour, detached from concrete, object references, becomes refined painting plasma, ever transforming and reshaping itself. The image keeps evanescent traces of the objects filtered by memory and the discreet trace of the nostalgic reflexiveness of the artist.
2. Artistic object. The ‘Memory Box’ cycle brings in the concept of trace-image, proposing a type of plastic object made by combining the principle of obtaining the image, specific to the dark room, with the suggestions offered by the technical procedure consecrated by Transylvanian glass painting: a reconsideration and a postmodern revalorisation of tradition, integrated in a manipulation of light achieved through contemporary techniques. The image painted on the back of the glass is projected by a beam of light and directed on to a film of water which functions as a mirror, reflecting it in order to offer it to the viewer as immaterial, changing and ephemereal.
3. Digital animation. The static image, lifted from painting or drawing and turned, together with photographs, into digital ‘raw material’, becomes dynamic frames, which through links and successive transitions contribute to the birth of film creations, which have a clearly defined subject, script and timing (the Flash movies ‘Memories about Thoughts’ and ‘TransAppearances’ – still frames from these films are presented in the catalog).