​

 

THE GESTURE OF COLOUR

 

 

The exhibition Scrollpainting153 caput mortuum metamorphosis by the German artist Elisabeth Sonneck is produced as a site-specific installation and unfolds within the space through a duality of metamorphic construction and deconstruction, chameleon-like, it continually adapts to the space, just as the space adapts to the installation — in this case, the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory. The unpredictability of the works is presented not with the intention of mastering the materials, but rather of granting them freedom and autonomy in space and time, where they behave symbolically. In Elisabeth Sonneck’s own words, “the physical relationships within the work become evident: neon-green threads and found objects from the urban environment, which serve as counterweights, as part of the carefully balanced installations. These found objects, often broken and unprocessed, together with fragments of everyday life, contrast with the painting – yet at the same time the two form a functional symbiosis. Deliberately, I avoid dominating either the materials or the space: just as I do not cut, fold, crumple, or tear the paper, I install works without punch walls with nails or screws, relying instead solely on physical gestures that interact with site-specific conditions, such as window frames, ledges, cracks, holes in the wall, and other marginal elements. For the paper forms themselves, I make use of the material’s natural tension, resulting from its industrial production.” Through the inclusion of everyday objects in an ongoing exercise of intermateriality, connecting and integrating pre-existing materials, Elisabeth Sonneck imbues them with emotional significance through the creation of this artistic installation.

 

The exhibition embodies the memory of the artist’s gesture — gestures created not to endure over time, but consciously realised and temporarily fixed within space. It is a perception expressed through colour, as a understanding language from a more conceptual perspective. There is a strong conviction in the nature of marks and materiality itself, where colour proclaims its presence. “Whatever emotional quality colours a space, whether sad or heavy, once it is expressed — poetically expressed — sadness is seasoned, the weight is eased.”[1]Space–time–matter–colour bound by a consistent and coherent material fluidity.

 

Before the works are suspended, they are folded and rolled according to a highly distinctive action-reaction methodology, intimate showcase of artworks. Elisabeth Sonneck’s artistic practice develops through the interaction between making and predicting how the works will ultimately be displayed.

 

Within this exhibition narrative, a rhythm of natural creation emerges, where the installed works, balanced in space, articulate a material dialogue of colour and texture, preceded by a succession of gestures that the artist elevates and transforms into formal and artistic coherence. As the artist states, “since 2006, temporary and delicately balanced installations have been shaped in which the space itself becomes the driving force and co-creator of the situation. The same sheet of paper may lie flat, hang, lean, or stand upright in ever-changing positions, in different places and at different times… rather than generating forms of fixed permanence, metamorphosis, transformation, and fluidity are the principles that guide my work.” Scrollpainting153 caput mortuum metamorphosis is drawn between weight and lightness, establishing an ephemeral conceptual relationship within each space it occupies.

 

The exhibition is constructed from a blend of memories drawn from previous exhibitions, gestures that repeat themselves without ever truly being repeated, since the act of artistic creation is inherently unrepeatable. “She closed her eyes for a moment, allowing the birth of a gesture or a phrase without logic. (…) Sometimes, through a special mechanism, much like slipping into sleep, she would close the doors of consciousness and allow herself to act or speak, receiving with surprise — for the perception of the gesture came to her only at the moment of its execution.”[2] The meaning of the colour of the gesture unfolds within a space harmony in which Elisabeth Sonneck explores the countless possibilities of expanding her coloured paintings within the sterilized white environment of the laboratory — now, transformed into a place where colours dance and encounter gesture.

 

 

Sofia Marçal, June 2026

 

[1] Gaston Bachelard, in: The Poetics of Space, p. 146.

[2] Clarice Lispector, in: Near to the Wild Heart, p. 42.