The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

A baptism of color at Meral Alma: The Dancer of Life

2022-09-19T09:20:56.499Z


Actually, only a visit to the studio of the Düsseldorf artist Meral Alma was planned. But then it turned into a color baptism for our editor Katja Kraft - and a lot of fun!


Actually, only a visit to the studio of the Düsseldorf artist Meral Alma was planned.

But then it turned into a color baptism for our editor Katja Kraft - and a lot of fun!

If you happen to walk past Meral Alma's Düsseldorf studio at night, there's a 99 percent, oh, 100 percent chance that the light is still on there.

black light.

If you knock on the door curiously, Alma's husband will probably open it.

Because she – as always – works.

In the midst of paint buckets and aerosol cans and floor-to-ceiling canvases and drying racks on which flowers covered in shades of blue are drying.

In between the artist, like a glowing firefly.

Alma rarely comes without phosphorescent dye on their clothing.

She is a full body worker.

The eight by three meter work up on the gallery of the studio perhaps tells the most impressive story.

+

Standing in front of the eight by three meter work "Circus of Life Act 4" in Meral Alma's studio feels like being in front of a peep box.

Depending on the lighting conditions, other image levels emerge.

© kjk

Meral Alma applied the canvas directly to the entire middle wall - giving the viewer the impression of being right in the middle.

A spatial illusion, as was already being produced in the 18th century with peep boxes.

300 years later, Alma takes it one step further.

One click and the ballerinas in the middle of the picture start dancing.

So it seems.

Seen in normal light, you can see their silhouettes on the colorful, expressive work.

But if the color spectrum changes in the fluorescent tubes above, a second level appears.

Individual areas come to the fore, others disappear, merged with the now black picture surface.

A light wave change later, the image, room and visitor are almost black and white; only with the use of a flashlight does color still appear to exist.

Meral Alma works with several image layers

You stand in front of it, fascinated.

And wonders: How did she do it?

Because the artist does not prepare sketches beforehand.

Everything arises from an inner plan.

In doing so, she must always know what effects a change on the first level will have on the one below.

"Basically, I see it in my mind's eye.

It's only towards the end that I work with different light sources to perfect the effect layer by layer,” says Alma.

+

A completely different image appears under black light in Meral Alma's Düsseldorf studio.

© kjk

In the art world, the graduate, multiple award winner and master student of the Düsseldorf Art Academy, who studied German and sociology at the Heinrich Heine University there and is now doing her doctorate, is no longer an insider tip.

Her works can be found in collections at home and abroad.

The described fourth act from her work cycle "Circus of Life" has already been sold.

To a collector who wants to give many an opportunity to experience it.

+

A different light - and again a new "circus of life act 4" appears.

© kjk

What at first glance seems as confusing as life itself is perfectly conceived, hour by hour.

“I believe that there is no such thing as time in relation to the process of creating an image.

Pictures behave like divas, capricious, and – it feels – are never finished,” she says, looking lovingly around the room like a mother at her Pappenheimer.

"Sometimes they bully you into thinking, 'Now the job is almost done.'

Exhausted, but inspired by happiness, I leave the studio in the morning hours, only to find out the next day that the picture is unfortunately anything but finished,” she says with a laugh.

Even as a child, Meral Alma shocked her parents with her art

She always carried the tremendous urge for colors within her.

It could happen that little Meral, as a primary school student, came up with the idea of ​​painting the kitchen at home bright blue – but without first covering the furniture, tiles and appliances.

"It didn't meet with unreserved approval - even though I had bought the paint with the pocket money I had saved!"

Especially with the color blue, her art goes even better with the Loisach than with the Rhine.

In the best of company with the Blaue Reiter artist Franz Marc.

“He already understood colors as forces that directly affect certain emotional areas.

If the effect of conventional colors is no longer sufficient for me, I experiment with pigments, powders and liquids - until I have added another element to the color palette."

+

Meral Alma starts with the color baptism of Katja Kraft in her Düsseldorf studio.

© kjk

While she is telling this, she leads her guest into the lower area of ​​the studio, her "laboratory".

And out of some impulse - maybe because you happen to be wearing blue shoes and blue stockings - she suddenly grabs your arm and calls out: "Actually, you need a color baptism now!" And even though those are your favorite blue shoes and even though you also a bit scared about the new top and although you can't really imagine what exactly a color baptism means, you can hear yourself saying: "Okay!" Meral Alma has already whirled upwards, a few minutes later she stands in front of one again, with two white Mickey Mouse sweaters.

"So you don't mess up your new top." And then you lean there, against the (still) white wall, in Mickey sweater, tights and your favorite blue shoes.

The baptism begins.

+

Color baptism passed: Editor Katja Kraft in Meral Alma's Düsseldorf studio.

© kjk

From top to bottom, Alma fires the colors at her guest.

Always takes two steps back and looks at the work.

And all of a sudden you feel what it's like to be a canvas.

Uplifting.

Luminous, from the outside and from the inside.

And when she says "Done" and fetches the black light lamp, you feel like the ballet dancer.

Ready for the next pirouette in this colorful circus called life.

Read here: How the artist Meral Alma painted the perfect dress for our editor Katja Kraft for the Munich PIN.Party.

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2022-09-19

You may like

Trends 24h

Life/Entertain 2024-03-28T17:17:20.523Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.