Jelena Rasevska

City:

I am Jelena, an artist, painter located in  Bristol, UK. For many years my journey into the art world has been connected with realism, but the last year I started to explore abstract expressionism, especially action art or spin art. Inspired by Alfons Schilling's and Damien Hirst's artworks, I have created my spin machine.

Using a simple rotary tool, I started to create rotary action paintings.  I was exploring the paint fluidity, and this process interested me greatly. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, the spontaneous flow of paints. As a result, the finished painting cannot be repeated and cannot be done manually. Secondly, this process raised many philosophical questions about understanding what art is, in general, its creator's role in it and the connection between technology and the artist. 

At the moment, all my creative activity is focused precisely on rotary paintings and drawings; it became my daily life. This seemingly simple action and a simple way of painting is an unending source of questions that are stretched like a thread through all art. For example:

  • What is a painting?
  • What is art?
  • What is talent, and does it exist at all?
  • What exactly makes a painting?
  • What makes painting's value?
  • Whose responsibility is to make sure that artwork "speaks"?
  •  If a painting was made with invisible paint, would it still be a painting?

Every time I dig deeper, I am getting involved in asking more questions and finding answers, which is incredibly inspiring.

 I have to mention that not the result and the finished painting is important but also the process of painting, which becomes a performance piece, the birth of a painting. To watch my painting videos, please follow me on social media:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSgIetEh-Mzd97gqcH8-KBg

Instagram: elen__rush

TikTok: elenrushart

"Great explosion", acrylic on paper, 2020. One of the rotary action paintings. Full process video is available on Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20dY4CcjMT0