Mirko Junkovic
My abstractions are inspired by and are a response to different features of the extraordinary natural world, from both macro and micro viewpoints. Many aspects of landscape - coastlines, gardens, rocks, plants - have all, at different times, provided a wealth of visual information contributing to various projects.
Drawing, in its broadest sense, is an important component in the process of assimilating, experiencing and recording such phenomena. The act of drawing, making a mark or a line, like handwriting, provides a fundamental, and, for me, important human connection with the work. This compulsion can be seen in many of the books documented in ‘Turning Pages’.
These books have also become convenient containers for experimentation with visual relationships, where anything and everything is possible and worth trying out. Paint, ink and different types of paper are used inexhaustibly, either as ends in themselves or as potential starting points to develop further on a larger scale.
This approach to making art is always intuitive and exploratory. Each new piece is an opportunity to embark on a journey into uncharted territory, exploiting the innate properties and characteristics of paint or mixed-media, produces the space for invention and discovery at every stage. In this way, using different methods of application, the working surface becomes a field of activity on which the gradual accumulation of matter takes place, like a palimpsest, documenting and revealing the unpredictability of each encounter through chance and intent.