Seria Îngeri Angels Series

A departure from immediate reality.

Starting from the understanding that angels possess the quality of being simultaneously close to God and close to man, and subsequently, that if they share the same root, they would unfold within a universe roughly similar to that of man, I have illustrated in this series a reality, a world, a universe populated by spiritual beings close to the Creator. A sort of double of man, yet positioned close to God within a dimension or space highly resembling the human one—diaphanously outlined, starting from Thomas Aquinas's assertion that angels exist because order exists. I have infused the "Angels" series with message and story in such a manner that one might think the transplantation of human laws and rules into this newly created dimension was done as a natural, mirroring framework-aid for an easy understanding of the newly described reality.At times, I opted for a chromatic palette in powerful shades.

The cultural influence and binding thread of this series of works is the sacred as an inner dimension, as an internal culmination. The starting point toward an ultra-modern, postmodern representation was the point itself, then the line, the circle, the triangle... geometric shapes. I realized these works through an imposed exercise of imagination, using the analyses and syntheses necessary for this dimension in a version that sprouted from the point. I dedicated hours to bringing to life a concept that actually speaks about man, showing that in the existence immediately following immediate existence, as a possible variant, there could exist a world close to us both through the elements used and through its function in our lives. It represents it functionally as an experience that helps you transpose yourself and discover endless new feelings or perspectives—that is, a sort of "immersive" experience into a sacred but non-conforming world. I found it fitting for this world—which stimulates you to transpose yourself into another place, dimension, and universe than the one you might expect—to be represented timelessly, rendered with the help of geometric shapes. I mention that this argument was born out of the desire and need to explain at length the reality imagined in the "Angels" series. As a working tool, the geometric shape offered me the possibility to highlight aspects related to notions that helped me, and from which I created expressions, feelings, sentiments, and emotions. The goal was to highlight the links between geometry and the surrounding world within the newly born universe, and at the same time, to emphasize a part of the laws that dominate the universe, the whole, order, and the absolute. In Greek, GEOMETRY would be geo = earth, metria = measure.

I analyzed, synthesized, and understood that describing the existential space of beings close to God—the angels—through the medium of geometry is the choice that facilitates the understanding of sacred unities in our human lives: sacred beings, unseen but seen through the imagination, borrowing laws, feelings, and expressions that bring to mind human feelings, sentiments, and emotions. At the same time, the beauty of geometric shapes triggers here a smoother recognition and construction of the newly imagined universe. A universe that transcends the human, which lies beyond the physical world, beyond the profane. I used the point, the simplest geometric shape, to create character traits, emotions, states, feelings, and the element-motif found in several works of the series: the collective being, "The Swarm." In this case, "The Swarm" would be the representation of the connection between worlds. It comes from somewhere, it departs, traversing the imagined universe without being a constitutive part of it, interacting and leaving behind attitudes and expressions, all to outline and describe the imagined resembling traits between the human universe and the one at hand.

The initial formative process of immediate reality lies beyond the spatiotemporal zone of understanding to which we would be constrained. It was a matter of a certain descent from the sphere of an unknowable, almost mysterious numen directly into a world, dimension, and reality that I described through the force of the sensory phenomenon. One of the most precious contributions to the inner liberation of this series was brought to me by geometry. Although one might think it to be scholastic ballast of a dynamic conception, it was actually the starting point that helped me form the architectural frameworks according to which the angelic universe becomes a stable and spatially circumscribed form. Without an objective solidity, I cannot speak about a correctness of form; however, I placed at the origin an attitude and an understanding of a rare subtlety regarding form beyond form, space beyond space, and time beyond time. I consider the "Angels" series an enrichment with new ways of reflecting upon reality. I saw the fruitfulness of the series in the simple, blissful opposition between starting from the fixed frameworks given by the world of geometry and the infinity of eventual realities not yet fully known to man.

I allowed the underground presence of a resemblance between the well-known human world and the world of angels to be felt, serving as a unifying center that acts throughout the series as an amplifying factor of expressive tension.

Chromatic abundance is absent. Its absence helped me define the complexity of the variants and realities that could enchain the infinite. When I addressed the chromatic crisis, my sole concern was establishing a functional logic, aiming to reduce the tension generated by color, and directing the discourse toward defining the essence of the initial message: A departure from the reality of immediate existence.

Lavinia Bujor-Deaconu