Talia Kirsh
The Body of Light

Talia Kirsh is a New York-based multimedia artist who works with photography, video, painting, installation, and prints. Her photographic work explores the subtle intimacies of people in cultural and religious spaces. Her works often reflect the juxtaposition of semiology embedded in these spaces and how this influences and shapes our human experience. The center of her installation, video and multimedia work is given by Kirsh’s exploration of body-oriented therapies, the mind-body connection and the release of feelings. The genesis of this work comes from the internal sensations of the artist and the practice of incarnation, this process involves feeling the psychic-emotional spectrum and moving it towards and within the materials.

ARTIST STATEMENT
The Body of Light is a portrait of a sacred world, which is both a natural scene and an interior landscape. These landscapes or inscapes, as I like to call them, do not represent isolated elements; rather they advocate a universal idea of ​​a cosmic territory. Originally, the concept of The Body of Light began with the intention of creating metaphysical diagrams of the human body in a state of meditation and prayer. These drawings emulated how energy moves through currents within the body and in its surrounding field. Soon these diagrams began to unfold and de-construct into primitive energy symbols and motifs from Mother Nature with mystical and ethereal qualities.

Using aquatint, silk and spontaneous painting, I allow the work to flow completely and to build or de-build itself spontaneously. The matrix is ​​coated with water-, oil- and pigment-based ink tones, often using water to create rippling rhythmic patterns, emulating auric fields and currents. I often create gestural impressions in the ink with my hands and at the same time tear off the layers of pigment to create an empty space in which this “light aspect” emerges. As intuition and feeling are the key element of my creation process, I sometimes destroy images by soaking the plate with water in a single moment or cutting the pigment on the plate with a jet of emotion. I treat the creative process as a dance, which unfolds through improvisation and feeling. As the original marks are moved, removed, splashed, swirled and scratched, I see how the images create extensions of themselves, transforming one existence into another. The final incarnation is formed in a psycho-spiritual landscape where only some elements emanate from the impression itself.