During her travels, Lon Buttstedt gathers all possible ‘lost objects’, which she combines into simple, often symmetric and always mysterious works of art that stimulate the spectator to look for explanations. A kind of sampling, so to say, of trivial, ritual or archaeological objects that do not have a meaning or of which the meaning has been long lost.
Within this framework, a quiet, intimate world full of contrasts comes to live. Flat and dimensional, light and dark, tenderness and aggression are effortlessly put together in coherence and in reciprocity.
Ancient writings carefully wrapped in cloth play the leading part in the series of paintings called ‘Himalaya blues’. Floating lakes, newly budded plants, mountain tops and flames move above the colourful little packages as if they were celestial bodies. They appear to have risen from the packages and seem to visualize part of the writing.
Within her work, Lon Buttstedt uses different symbols originating from different cultures. In a Medieval kind of way, she places her objects above one another, creating a mysterious hierarchy of things. Heedless of their origin, she approaches the objects as an unbiased explorer: de meaning lies in surprise.
Lon Buttstedt
Voorstraat 5
4233EA Ameide
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0) 183 600 997
lonbuttstedt@planet.nl
www.lonbuttstedt.nl
Review HIMALAYA BLUES
The series of Lon Buttstedt’s work, which came into being after travelling through India and Bhutan, is called ‘Himalaya blues’. The series is a blend of impressions, images, memories and ‘lost objects’, brought back home as a keepsake of an impressive experience. In ‘Himalaya blues’ these souvenirs and memories function as a starting point in creating new work. It is a personal homage of the artist to ‘the roof of the world’ and its fascinating culture, a travel story not literally written, but transformed into a symbolic telling, which can only be felt intuitively. A good spectator of Buttstedt’s work is someone who understands it on the basis of his own sense of direction and travels together with Buttstedt to a far away destination.
The world of ‘Himalaya Blues’ floats in a diffuse, blue universe that does no
seem to know a beginning or an ending. There is no recognizable, measurable
space, but instead there is an infinitiness; a dimension wich reaches outside
our familiar reality. The cool blue offers a way to absorb and feel the endless space of the highest, most appealing chain of mountains of the world.
It is this inner world of Lon Buttstedt that cryptically reveals itself to the spectator; that intrigues and enchants while it unfolds itself as a poetic mystery.
MIXED CULTURES
The new series of works of art by Lon Buttstedt is named
Mixed Cultures. Every piece of work has been composed of
carefully presented objects and natural elements. Someone
who takes in the images and colors in a meditative way may
discover associations as well as new significances.
In the studio of Lon Buttstedt you may find an overwhelming
and varied collection of objects. Lon has used some
elements of that collection as a starting point for her
works of art. She chooses an object that appeals to her at
that particular moment, and that seems to solicit for a
renewal of significance.
In the series you will find pieces stemming from 17th
century Spain, for example depictions of amulets, and
objects with a fabric casing. These were shaped as small
boxes or jewelry, containing something precious, or
something believed to be powerful. People carried such
amulets for protection.
In one painting an amulet may be used as example and
starting point, a piece of tapestry or lace may be used in
an other painting. The chosen object is painted in a field
acting as a reality without limitations. Associatively, this
reality is being filled with other objects taken from the
enormous supply the world has to offer.
Lon searches, almost intuitively, the colors and shapes
called up by the leading object: flowery motifs,
extraterrestrial bodies, Earth etc. By making these kinds
of associations the significance of the original objects and
elements will be rewritten.
Fabric with flower motifs could for example evoke images of
oases in the desert. Flowers and plants shoot up against a
background of desert colors; the firmament as created seems
to stem from Buddhist motifs.
A painting made by Lon is a story of a fascinating voyage
into the depths of her imagination.
In the series Mixed Cultures there is that flavor of warm
attention for and amazement about the world that surrounds
us; about the things produced by nature and culture.
This attitude towards life brings you in touch with the
numerous characteristics of material objects as well as with
the new characteristics you yourself might want to impart on
them. Everything is interlaced and has a connection to
everything else....a road to a meaningful and blossoming
world!
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