HILMA AF KLINT -THE DOVE
QUESTIONING THE PIECE
Is everything connected?
Where do you find meaning in your life?
What are your values? What do you represent? What do you want to embody? Do you love yourself?
What is your ideal self? What does it mean to be your highest self?
Do I treat myself with the love and respect I truly deserve?
Do the people I surround myself with add any value to my life?
Do I love myself as much as I expect others to love me?
THE CENTER OF LIFE
Love is not about forcing the pieces to fit into shapes. Love is infinite. There is no restriction. There is no starting point and ending point. Love is being. Love is the center point of life. You need to love yourself first to love others. When you accomplish loving yourself, you start to see the colors that surround you, the lights that shine to you, the sparks that dazzle you. Eventually, you start to click with others and will be able to analyze your relationship with others. Through the process of loving yourself, you will learn who you really are and what’s right for you and what gives you happiness. Then one day someone will walk into your life and you will be able to see how he/she completes you and helps you to be a better you.
Hilma Af Klint’s art piece shows the progression of life. As it’s seen at the bottom of the painting, the spirals which I associate with DNA are white. White DNA helixes represent the starting point where everyone is born pure. After that point, the flow is cut and the colors start to emerge again. It’s the period where the individual reaches maturity by exploring his/her surrounding and meeting people with different personalities. In the piece, personality types are introduced to us through different colors. When the individual learns who his really are, he will be able to understand which color describes him the best and be able to make better choices about everything. The spirals emerge again but this time the helixes are colored with the colors that describe the individual. They are forged with the combination of blue and yellow which are complementary colors. The combination of complementary colors shows that good and bad can be found in everybody. Everything in life has its polar opposite. Life wouldn’t be meaningful if there is no left without a right or no success without failure or no good person without a bad person or no love without hate.
Hilma Af Klint benefited from several geometrical symbols to articulate her intended message. She brought out a heart shape from a spiral and placed it in the middle of the piece. “The spiral has become a powerful symbol for creation and growth, used by many ancient cultures and religious traditions.”1It represents the consciousness of nature beginning from its center expanding outwardly and has been linked to the path of life: birth, growth and maturity. The reason she placed the spiral into the heart is to emphasize that when a person learns to love himself he can experience rebirth in his life. “Rebirth can signify a time of starting fresh, of being conjured a new, of creating a blank page for the future.The scent of re-birth can imply blue skies and endless vast horizons. Everything is suddenly awoken, stirring with possibility.”2 Additionally, she constructed DNA structure by using spirals. Since DNA has three parts, sugar, phosphate and bases that are linked together, Hilma Af Klint divided the DNA structure into three to show the three stages of life: birth, growth and maturity. In order to represent each stage she used combination of different colors: white for birth, blue and yellow for growth and pink and white for maturity. While the helixes show the progression and flow of life, change in colors highlight the change in personality over time.
Additionally, she formed the background with rectangles but placed the heart inside the circle. Circle is a universal symbol and is used to represent the wholeness, original perfection, the Self, the infinite, eternity and timelessness. Hilma Af Klint used the circle deliberately to explain that love is infinite and there is no greater feeling than to love and be loved and love cannot be forced to fit into shapes.
What do you get when you mix blue and yellow? We all know the answer according to the basic color theory; green. Green is perfect harmony. While using yellow for masculinity and blue for femininity, she emphasized the necessity of unity and communication through green . The combination of yellow and blue helixes results in
love. And after love happens, the colors of the helixes turn into pink and white which are the colors she used in her pieces to indicate spiritual love.
“Unity materializes into flow.
Flow materializes into love.
And Love,
completes,
It completes all.” – TESS GUINERY
When you love yourself, everything falls into line. You be will reborn, realize who you really are and be able to reach endless horizons by finding your path…Over every color, you will be able to choose the one that describes and completes you the most. As a result you will feel peaceful, complete and powerful.
For the BRIDGE 2, I was required to create 30 works in response to Hilma Af Klint’s art piece that I saw at the Guggenheim Museum. While I was creating my pieces my overall aim was to bring out pieces that represent progression, connectivity, love, peace and self- realization. I wanted to include different colors to highlight that everyone is different but same. We are all different in terms of culture, color, feelings, emotions, interests, backgrounds.. the list will go on. However we are able to communicate and love each other, when we unite we create a beautiful harmony .Additionaly, I wanted to include the symbols that were used by Hilma and created my own designs through using them
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