orsi [cowell-lehoczky]
New work: Be My Daniel (Susanna and the Elders)
Acrylic paint on carved reclaimed oak wood plank, 20x10x1.5cm in size.
I started this work shortly after I finished the first 5 pieces of the Pretty Little Things, on Easter Monday, with no clear view in my head how it would look. I suppose the news of Pope Francis’s death in the background must have contributed to the way it was going, with my thinking turning to the biblical story of Susanna and the Elders. The theme has been depicted lots of times before: The young woman was preyed upon by two old men while washing in her garden, then confronted by them, asking for indecent favours. When Susanna refused, the old men accused her of adultery and she would have been condemned. But Daniel believed her and by interrogating the accusers, he found out the truth and punished the old men instead. I find that this story is not only implying that sexually motivated ill-treatment is as old as communities themselves, but that finding someone to stand up for the victims and prosecute the real perpetrators is vitally important for a functioning society.
New work: PRETTY LITTLE THINGS. (You know you can’t touch them, right?)
A series of 5 wooden bas-relief pieces made from unused old canvas stretchers and painted with artist's acrylic paint.
Pretty Little Thing I (You know you can’t touch, right?) 53x4.5x1.5cm | Pretty Little Thing II&III (You know you can’t touch, right?) 23x4.5x1.5cm
Pretty Little Thing IV (You know you can’t touch, right?) 49x5x1.5cm | Pretty Little Thing V (You know you can’t touch, right?) 51x5x1.5cm
There are certain rules that every single member of society has to adhere to, and there should be no excuses acceptable when they are abused. I believe that respect to and full protection of an individual's right to integrity, self expression and full control over one's body - and mind - regardless of age, sex or affiliation. And that is why I get so upset every time I hear about grown people abuse their position against the more vulnerable.
In this series I diverged (again) into 3D, as I wanted to encourage my audience to feel the inclination to experience the details by touching: to find out what is carved and what is just an illusion of paint on the artworks' surface. And by extension realise, that we, as individuals, acquired - as part of the societal code of conduct - inhibitors for certain things, like not to touch displayed artworks (unless explicitly permitted). Without being constantly prompted, we just know and oblige.. I'm drawing a parallel, to remind people of the collective responsibility we have towards others and against those, who break the rules.
I enjoyed David Hepher’s concrete paintings of brutalist housing estate architecture in early February '25 at the Flowers Gallery, that - by reminding me of my teen years spent trying to sunbathe on our 70’s built, towel-sized balcony - helped me finalise the “look”and gave me the idea to utilise the restrictive size of my odd stretcher-bars, that I had lying around my studio.
New Work: Dream I (Hope is Pregnant with the Future)
Acrylic paint on (bas-relief style) carved and primed recycled pine scaffolding plank. Size: 23 x 133 x 2cm
THE 7TH JOHN RUSKIN PRIZE: FROM THE EYE TO THE HAND
My application
Ruskin says: “The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see.” He considered his own drawing and painting - from a geological specimen to an Alpine scene or the architecture of Venice - principally as his route to truly seeing and recording the world or, in the case of the enormous diagrams with which he illustrated his lectures for example, to encouraging others properly to see it and thus to enrich their lives as productive members of society.
There is an important agency between perception and creation, though: A creator-artist should do more, than just recording the world. (A good camera can achieve that in an instant, and the world has changed significantly since Ruskin’s time.) For me, an artwork is born from a thought and made to provoke thought and emotions. Not quite like “encouraging others to properly see”, rather to see from a different perspective: Artworks are created to widen horizons in my opinion. There must be a freedom of perception as there should be a freedom of expression.
’Seeing’- to me, as an artist-, is actually picking out what is truly important from the huge amount of visual information out there. Then ‘creating’ is to arrange these references - as visual metaphors - into a clear, discernible narrative that best conveys abstract ideas into a message that should mean a lot more, than the original items themselves managed to achieve. The purpose is to evoke emotions instantaneously, while also to encourage thoughts to flow freely. So, making a visual artwork - I agree with Ruskin - is to help others see, so they can create their own understanding.