MEMBER ARTIST / Rachel Schali

My early work was painted shaped wall installations. They were about travel, color, maps and events. The pieces became more autonomous later, while still experimenting with materials and painting on unusual surfaces, often making my own paint. Subjects included boats, wings, and tools. After having children I painted portraits of family, friends, and people of diverse cultures or circumstances that deserved more respect.

Recent works are experimenting with shape, color and process to create unpredictable works, in order to surprise myself and represent spontaneous and uncontrollable outcomes. Recent works were inspired by the Ukrainian diaspora, diasporas in general, and Bedouin tents, which represent the illusion of permanence. I’m also interested in including only the most essential points to create shapes and color. The work is becoming more abstract and still about spontaneous, unpredictable outcomes.

Currently my work is about color and how gravity affects shapes over time. I had a dream where I wanted to use shapes in a dance. I asked dancers to dance the curves and shapes they said they didn’t know how. This woke me up, in the next dream, I dreamt that a curve is something that falls in gravity, then dreamt that falling in dance is leaping. So I imagined dancers leaping and turning making curves in space. I wonder if the gravity on a drape is nature’s dance.