Marya Kazoun, Wood installation
Once upon a time, there was a forest...
Humans began to clear the forest without thinking of the consequences, and thereby the Dark was awakened unintentionally. The dark had been buried long ago and had long been forgotten…
Unnoticed by humans, Spirits of the forest decided to destroy it before it would injure more the forest or humans.
Spirits went on an adventurous journey, to fight against the Dark, to solve diverse mysteries and open hidden gates. They became more powerful. The Animals helped them. All you could hear giggling, babbling and cooing. They bathed and cleansed it all
If you go down to the woods today...
This work derives from a previous work entitled the Woods where driftwood was gathered tied in bundles, painted in black and installed in a circular form inspired by Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument site in Wilshire, England that is believed to be a burial ground from its earliest beginnings to its zenith around the mid 3rd millennium BC. Other researches claim that Stonehenge may have been built as a symbol of "peace and unity" and others a "place for healing".
The viewer could walk around them. The overall feeling conveyed is of solemn spirituality amidst a forest.
In this current work I created a fictive narrative around The Woods installation (kindly refer to the statement above) and developed it. In this work the forest is given a ‘bath’ as kind of metaphor… Cleansing humanity for humanity where their woods are washed with soap…
- Marya Kazoun
I started this series of forests shortly after settling in Australia.
In the summer of 2013, gigantic bushfires broke out around Sydney, transforming the colour of the sky, as the smell of burning wood invaded the streets.
In spite of the tragic nature of these fires, I could not escape feeling a sense of wonder in the face of the press and television images superimposing flames, with the silhouettes of trunks and trees.
I thus decided to visit the charred forests, seeking to understand the feelings and emotions induced by these unreal and silent landscapes littered with ash…
Revisiting these black and grey forests a month later, I could see life returning already as young shoots of an intense green were starting to appear: paradox of fire, destructive and purifying, liberating and devastating, catalytic
I found in the evolution of this mutating landscape an echo of my personal history. I suddenly understood that these landscapes allowed me to represent aspects of my experience. Forests are a mysterious and magical place, sometimes scary … a place of silence, where one is confronted with one’s self.
And in this manner, I set out to complete complex canvasses… experimenting with new techniques, sometimes losing myself for entire days, retracing my steps, changing tones and, above all, giving free rein to my intuition.
The threshold of the forest prevents all return, one finds one’s self facing one’s destiny.
And, like in ancient tales, I crossed the forest, confronted my fears and emerged transformed.
These canvasses have been an expression of this transformation towards a new space.
- Karine Boulanger