The Big Work
"The creation we are working on is a kind of diary writing."
Picasso
On the winter of 2004 I started coloring out all the 1x1 cm squares of a huge cross-girded page. I wanted to prove myself – no matter what – that I am able to fill the whole of the page. The process took several months. Life past on meanwhile. I continued painting when I was able to do so, and I recorded every step of the development by taking photos of it – continuously. I have never colored the painting over after the making. During the creation I avoided using two colors: black and white (Because life is not black and white either.) There were times, when I wasn’t able to continue working for weeks, and I felt I would never be able to finish it at all. There were occasions, when it was very hard to continue – or more, to restart – it. There were moments, when I would have say from the bottom of my heart: that was it, I’m quitting, end of story.
At the end more than 7000 pieces of squares have been colored out by me, and I took 67 photos.
I have given it the title Big Work, but not because it is the masterpiece of my life, but because its size is enormous, and because I felt making is a big task.
There isn’t any limited depiction for the picture, the colorful squares have made their ways on the surface with calculable incalculability. I was never sure, if I am painting the right square at the time. I had started the work in eye-height, and finished it by sitting-standing on a chair. I noticed one square, which remained empty, absolutely by chance. And so the enterprise didn’t turn out to be a success.
Two tabloid-like compositions have been made from the series, one of them showing the making, the other one is showing a random order of the process.
A couple of close-ups was made as well, all of them giving a whole new impression of the painting:
