Exhibition

Travelling in an infinite labyrinth

„Behind the pseudo-disorder of Kamilla Szíj´s works lie conscious order and bold artistic principles. The artist breaks with the rules of graphic art as a cabinet genre, annexes space, moves the plane surface out from its space (corner picture), neglects the usual rectangular print format (round variations of prints), and considers both surfaces of the paper as ground (double sided pictures fixed at right angle onto the wall in eye level). She subverts the bounds of the traditional strategy of how we look at a graphic artwork as a whole (the series made of unique individual pieces compose a unit, a picture, only when seen from a distance of approximately 1-1.5 meters). In Kamilla Szíj’s works, the rigidity of monotonous, repetitive, thick and thin line mattings and the textures of the cobweb-like, delicate scrapes are sensously softened by the reserved colours (camomile yellow, red, light blue). But nobody should be lured into facile shalowness by the colorfulness of the works! To grasp the intimate world of these works, meditative absorption is needed, the leisurely calm of the traveler who can disregard the passing of time. ”

Krisztina Dékei

„In her recent drawings the process of creation becomes evident for the attentive viewer. The organically ever growing surfaces and structures, constructed of innumerable tiny lines, as in old monastic works, surrender to time, and, almost as a devotion are born as humble offerings. The essence of the works created by nuns or in nunneries, with meticulous care, is an expression of admiration towards God. The hope of establishing a relationship with him, is reached thorough long lasting, monotonous work that needs attention – which happens as a kind of prayer in silent concentration. Certainly the resemblance holds only for the method, the way of creation, and does not for its purpose, although both activities orient towards the inner world. Drawing the many thousand little lines could be a repetitive but liberating pursuit, like the crooning of a mantra, the inner work of a meditation. In comparison to the previous works of Kamilla Szij, the structure is much more bound here: after the universal scale, we entered a different world. The great sizes remain, but the telescope with which we view the world, has been substituted for a microscope. The biological structures are not likely conscious compositions, rather self evolving systems. Here one might feel musical pulsation, melodies here and there, and at the same time, the invisible laws of mathematics hiding behind all that exists.” ”

Zsolt Kishonty