Eszter Wolf is born in 1973 in Budapest, where she lives and works.
In my work, I am most interested in initiating a conversation about the unspeakable.
I get inspired by some sort of intensity, something that has an articulate physical sensual effect on me. These experiences, these impacts that I process through my art, are just like anyone else’s, they are every-day life experiences – so to speak –universal.
Emotions are feelings perceived by the body, and thus they are transmitted as physical data to the cognition. Before the mentalisation, I find that there is a field of possibilities, which is why it is also called the Transitional Space (Winnicott 1951). When I work, I linger in this space and I pursue to keep the incoming data in this unprocessed, unmentalised form for as long as possible to be able to analyse them in a different way, a non mental way. After, I search for other physical equivalents that are somehow similar in nature to the original.
These equivalents (colours, forms, symbols-signs, material) add up to create another form of physical reality, that is, the artwork. In this process in the transitional, a certain kind of personal crystallisation takes place. To give an example, I would say it is like the making of a soup. You have the ingredients, the process, the circumstances of creation. You may use the same ingredients, but in different quantity or quality. You may have the same process, but the circumstances will be different each time. No one can ever make the same soup twice. What I especially like about this metaphor, is that it is not only different each time, but it is also very personal.
These intensities – unspeakables – are very articulate and specific. Still, it’s hard to express them in words. Or, if tried, it feels like something has been lost on the way. This is where visual and sensual creation has, in my experience, its essential role.
We have a very verbal and conceptual culture nowadays, so it’s a relief for me to leave all this behind and “think” and “speak” by this sensual way about all that matters to me. The different phases of this no-interpretation-process, no-evaluation-process, my working process, provide me with the perspective of all kinds of adventures. Since the job is basically about finding the best equivalents, it is investigation and archaeology. Nevertheless, the use of the brush is inevitable.
This process of creation brings with itself the basic property of the object defining the style, not me.
Style is basically the portrait of the artist, and I am more interested in the things outside of me, rather than myself, simply because there are more interesting, intriguing, engaging things out there. Of course, I am also part of this, as it is my choice to use this process.
