Original, one-of-a-kind abstract painting by Cristine Balarine
Finalist to Florence Biennale 2023
Size: 270 x 180 cm
Medium: acrylics, spray paiting, oil sticks, charcoal and calligraphy ink on raw canvas
Ready to hang: no, ships rolled and needs to be restretched by your local framer*
Signature: front and verso, also signed Certificate
Year: 2023
Finish: silky varnish with UV protection
Shipping: rolled in tube
Delivery time: 3 – 10 working days (depending on size, customs formalities etc.)
* Shipping extra large formats rolled is safer and more environmentally friendly than shipping ready-to-hang works. The canvas can be easily re-stretched by a framer at your location, which in most cases is even much cheaper than the increased transport costs for a ready-to-hang painting. If you'd like a comparison quote for shipping ready-to-hang please contact me.
Free shipping rolled in a tube
Free returns within 10 days of purchase, see T&C for further information.
ABOUT THE PAINTING:
The Buried Village of Al Madam
This Florence Biennale 2023 finalist piece was conceived at the UAE desert at the abandoned village known as Al Madam Buried Town. This painting was rendered in two stages: Firstly, intuitive, non-planned layers were composed under the sound of live music. In a second stage, highly rationalised, memory-driven set of layers were added. The artist is fascinated with Al Madam village’s Spirit of the Place (or Genius Loci). How many memories are buried in this place, along with its architecture? Whilst the little town is indeed in ruins, surely for those who lived in the houses, had breakfast in the morning and went to the Mosque every day, their village is alive and whole, in their most treasured memories. The artist aims to stitch the residents’ fragmented identities through a multi-layered composition, overlaid with references to the late village, typical Bedouin patterns found in textiles and elements of Islamic architecture. Indeed, evocations of the current ruins, full of graffiti and houses in decay also find a place in the painting. This is the artist’s own memorial landscape claiming its territory, now part of her own private identity overlapping with the Genius Loci of this village. Layers are covered and uncovered, pushed out and pushed back, some sections are exposed and some are left totally hidden under many layers of paint. This is a tribute to the individual and collective memories we all bury, deep inside the landscapes of our minds.
Link to the live painting session in the desert:
https://youtu.be/ZzzBpPA2qTE