NATÁLIE KLIMŠOVÁ

The Search for Water

Painting Studio 1

Water serves as a central motif in your series, yet it does not appear directly in the images. What does its visual absence mean to you?
I understand water metaphorically as a kind of inner source or an indefinable prerequisite for survival. Since I partly perceive the thesis topic as a search and a journey, I also think of water as something inaccessible – perhaps as a goal that cannot be reached. I don’t see this as a negative outcome, but rather as a legitimate part of the process. It is about the possibility of straying from the path, going off the beaten track, and redefining the goal during the journey.

It strikes me that the castle, the pit, and water are not just motifs, but perhaps also certain psychological states. Do you think of the images as mental landscapes as well?
I suppose I do. I often work with fairly general representations of places or objects, and I also return to certain motifs. I like mirrors, labyrinths, and gardens, for example. Although they don’t always appear in the paintings directly, they operate somewhere in the background – and perhaps in my own imagination and thinking. These motifs carry a certain experience of space, yet they are not entirely concrete. I do not think of them strictly symbolically but rather in terms of the impression or state they can evoke or convey.

Could you elaborate on what the I Ching system means to you and how it specifically manifests in your practice? Do you use it more as a symbolic and interpretive framework, a source of associations and structures, or do you also use it to make decisions during the actual painting process?
For me, the I Ching serves primarily as a framework for interpretation and association. I don’t use it directly as a decision-making tool while painting, but I think it has left its mark on my work nonetheless, especially in visual terms. Looking back at my Bachelor’s series Garden, I realized that it was a period when I was most interested in the I Ching, and its principles also found their way into the paintings’ stylization. The system of lines in the I Ching is often described as providing certain pauses in the flow of time, known as the “changes.” I feel that some of that simplicity and the significance of the line have carried over into the way I construct and present my compositions. These are often simplified, sometimes composed of just a few lines, like scattered sticks.

photo: Polina Davydenko