birgitte moos chalcraft
"Dopamine Love", ("Repulsive Repetitions")
Acrylic & collage on wood panels. 121X121 inches / 305X305 cm, 2005
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Don't expect perfection!
The quest is to bring dreams and love into life. I have returned again and again, in recent years, to the theme of transformation from a materialistic lifestyle into authentic modes of being.
"Dopamine Love" is a mirror, I hold up for myself, but it should preferably be an interpretation offer to anyone who has tried to get lost in the love. If the artist's function is to hold up a mirror to society, we may have to accept the fact that in our time, the mirrors are hazy. The wearing of a mirror, reflecting every experience back into our own consciousness should be a progression from illusion to clarity. The problem is that we are blinded by our own projections, often stopping us from staying true to love and unity with other beings.
There is a kind of cultural deep freeze in our bodies, where society paralyzes our brains and disconnects us from nature. Sealing the life of feelings, and making the idea of radical change into being true to our selves, almost unthinkable.
In "Dopamine Love", I assemble a mosaic about the nature of love. To do this, I merge my two professions, visual arts and psychology, and examine through science and cultural research facets of love.
In my search for answers traces from man's early evolutionary stages up to contemporary brain research, that analyzes human love lives, are included.
"Dopamine Love" communicate from a myth generated part of our cultural heritage; revealing individual and collective human patterns being essential in love. The paintings explore thematically classical elements such as the Assyrians and the woman, carnal desires and the woman, and are often implanted in abstractions about nature and the body feminine. Through repetition of mythological symbols and figures and religious rituals on love and passion, from the earliest historical times, the paintings represent our obsession on achieving love, or what we believe is love.
They demand some attention. One might not be seduced at first, but then slowly, as one enters the images, a kind of pattern emerges where recognition might dawn! It is up to the voyeur to receive or to form a subjective impression.
- by Birgitte Moos Chalcraft