ANA MARIA MICU
  • Works
    • On canvas >
      • 2019 - 2020
      • 2017 - 2018
      • 2015 - 2016
      • 2011 - 2013
      • 2009 - 2010
      • 2007 - 2008
    • Others >
      • What Hurts the Most Is Left for Last
      • The Apprentice with no Sorcerer
      • Sketchbook
      • Scenography for Painting
      • The Wall Watcher
      • Changing Background
      • Image Search
      • The Presentation
  • Projects
    • The Insufficiency of Self
    • Speaking About the Unknown
    • A Picture on the Wall
    • Art Düsseldorf
    • Self-Portrait
    • ​​The Road Not Taken Ch. 2​
    • ​Can Serrat Art Residency
    • Self-portrait with Indoor Plant
    • How to Mend Unbroken Things
    • Abstract Circle
    • Installing the Image
    • A Conscious Choice for Temporary Blindness
    • Production as Tableau Vivant
    • Tender Heart, Keep Still!
    • Understatement
  • Publication
  • CV
  • Contact
Self-Portrait

​Dates|2017 Apr. 8 - 2017 May. 6, Tue. to Sat, 11am - 6pm.
Reception|2017 Apr. 8 (Sat) 3pm
Venue|Mind Set Art Center| 7F., No.180, Sec.1, Heping E. Rd. Da'an Dist., Taipei

Artists|Victor BALANON, Shiau-Peng CHEN, Marlene DUMAS, Tracey EMIN, HSIAO Chu-Fang, JHONG Jiang-Ze, Ana Maria MICU, SHI Jin-Hua , SHI Jinsong, Juin SHIEH, Melati SURYODARMO, TANG Jo-Hung, Charwei TSAI

www.art-msac.com
download press release

my works within the project

​My interest with these works is to speak of a personal method of occupying space and killing time.

As I grow into adulthood, art is less just something I enjoy. It is becoming a way of living one's life that requires internal validation, and of course, in this, I am always challenged by my common sense. I remain unsatisfied and continue in spite of the absence of persistent evidence that I am on the right path. Inspiration mixes with desperation in a way that is impossible to separate between the two of them, and I would argue that art can emerge only from this confusion, resistance and the associated methods of coping that I invent for myself.

On rare occasions, I look at something banal and catch a glimpse of a different reality, a fantasy world where things move slowly and graciously, like in a dance. The drawing "night and water . ...... For some reason" documents such a moment. One night I could not sleep, I got up and took a series of photographs of the shadow cast onto the walls of my room.  The background shapes originate from a majestic cherry tree and some paper cuttings I pasted on the window, to help the pigeons I feed on the sill to differentiate between landscape and glass. They mistakenly interpret the image reflected by the glass surface as a continuation of their environment, and they fly into it, possibly injuring themselves. I had to take measurements against this, and because of my actions, I was able to produce this photo of myself looking as I would have three horns pointing out, in harmonious normalcy with the way trees have branches. Therefore, I am not an artist because I can draw, but because of my predisposition of allowing the overlapping of worlds. This work would be my self-portrait.

The rest of my daily life is dull, and I get bored. I look at things, and they do not speak to me of anything, or at least not anything good. It is a sheer determination that pushes me forward, making me chase insubstantial memories and ideals. "stillness is actually ... Then non-dual" is a combined presentation of a drawing and an animated documentation of the producing process. I consider it an accurate description of what making art is for me. The palimpsest is not a side effect, as in the traditional sense, but something constructed with intention and negotiations, out of lines I feel most comfortable about, accentuated with black colored pencil, which is harder to erase than charcoal. The image becomes gradually darker, yet I do not see this as a descent into negativity, but as a method to accumulate and interpret personal experience into an abstract message from which others could benefit.

"private self-oblivion. ... In group pictures" depicts a confrontation with external circumstances. The coolness of the unengaged observer would be my position of choice, but, of course, life is more complicated than this. Hence the self-portrait presented through this work is an ideal representation, a person I wish I were all the time.
  • Works
    • On canvas >
      • 2019 - 2020
      • 2017 - 2018
      • 2015 - 2016
      • 2011 - 2013
      • 2009 - 2010
      • 2007 - 2008
    • Others >
      • What Hurts the Most Is Left for Last
      • The Apprentice with no Sorcerer
      • Sketchbook
      • Scenography for Painting
      • The Wall Watcher
      • Changing Background
      • Image Search
      • The Presentation
  • Projects
    • The Insufficiency of Self
    • Speaking About the Unknown
    • A Picture on the Wall
    • Art Düsseldorf
    • Self-Portrait
    • ​​The Road Not Taken Ch. 2​
    • ​Can Serrat Art Residency
    • Self-portrait with Indoor Plant
    • How to Mend Unbroken Things
    • Abstract Circle
    • Installing the Image
    • A Conscious Choice for Temporary Blindness
    • Production as Tableau Vivant
    • Tender Heart, Keep Still!
    • Understatement
  • Publication
  • CV
  • Contact