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Matti Braun Untitled, 2015
Silk, dye, powder-coated aluminum
261 x 201 x 4 cm
The work consists of a silk panel in a narrow aluminium frame. The rectangular image shows a horizontal progression of colors from purple to aqua to green. The work is a continuation of Braun’s series of seamless color progressions on silk. Because of their intense coloration, these works are technically extremely demanding to produce.
The dye process has its roots in the artist's investigation and appropriation of traditional techniques of textile production often used for religious or ritualistic purposes but unlike his earlier patola or batik series they no longer show the iconographic traces of their sources. There is a palpable tension between the work's restraint and its hypnotic lushness created by the combination of apparently simple means and the complexity of their creation, both the extensive references to the artist's project of investigating historical and cultural phenomena and the more immediate curiosity of how the seamless color modulations are created.