Painting by Olena Koliesnik

When external pressure becomes unbearable, my brain refuses to perceive details and narrows everything down to one color — the color of danger. The red in this work is about my anxiety, which paralyzed the body. I am used to saturating my works with details of urban nuances, but here I deliberately stripped the space bare. The refusal felt as if I had walked naked down the street. But the permission not to cling to the elements unexpectedly added a sense of freedom. The hero rests his head against the wall, blinded by his own condition, and sees only his shadow. The freedom and harmony of Itten’s primary colors exist very close together, but in a state of numbness they remain unattainable. They exist separately in each work. The works in the triptych are independent, but together they reveal the idea of Itten’s primary colors, to which I turned in search of harmony and its proportions. All works from the triptych can be purchased separately. Note: The painting is from the section “Stupor” (freeze reaction) from the series “Solomon’s Paradox” — 18 works created at the intersection of psychology, about reptilian survival instincts and the artist’s real history of emigration. 2023, Ukraine