Ans Swart

Katalogtext from Dr. Karla Bilang, Berlin 2004
(written in German)
**WEER IS MIJN MOEDER

Seven Concepts** Style:

In her art Ans Swart prefers mainly two stylistic forms: the expressive-spontaneous way of painting that is often gesture-like painting connected to performance, and a meditative- abstract way of painting with a spiritual content. In the series »Weather is my mother« she chooses a new path. This is not expressive painting, and yet the working process is carried d by emotions and memories that are being processed through a rational concept and than reproduced geometrically. Also Paul Klee still had expressive tendencies in his abstract fields of colour and linear compositions, and Piet Mondriaan had found his way into the abstract through the geometry of the forms of nature. These two names come immediately to mind, as well as minimalism, but at the same time the work that Ans Swart presents here is very different. Its concrete images could be called coded realism. It has a documentary character as well as a memorial function, both within a coded symbolic form. Maybe signalism would be a term encompassing all aspects, as colour and line as visual elements function as the carriers of signals.

Aspect of time:

During last five years of her life the artist's mother wrote down notes for every day. In this way she added her individual calendar of daily incidents to the general calendar of days of the week, months and years. Doing this she transformed the general into the specific, general time into the time of her own life. Simultaneously she recorded her own lifetime, handing it down to her descendants, albeit without the intent of doing so. But the fact of her death meant the end of the daily entries and added weight and authenticity to them. Suddenly the mother's life could be reconstruc-ted, not only seen from the outside, through her daughter, but through her own eyes and thoughts, available for others to read. Ans Swart carefully read this authentic record and recognized a structure that touched and inspired her: notes about the weather, the family, who came to visit when and how, by bike, car or the no. 11 bus, contact with neighbours and friends, conversations, shopping, went to bed early or late? The meaning of every day events. To offer the experience of real human existence.

The Calendarium:

The events from October 2000 until September 2001 are chosen and arranged as a calendar in months and days. In this way 12 canvasses of equal size (the months), each divided into 30 rectangles (days). The principle of this calendarium is to show time structure on a flat level, time is projected onto the canvas and a succession in time comes to sit side by side. The sequence of time as a characteristic for the fourth dimension (time) is preserved, but transformed during the sequence of horizontal and vertical coordinates.

Weather:

The weather is an important quantity that has always been closely connected to the mother's life. She was raised in Noord Holland, in a rural environment and near the sea, where the weather provides the frame for the course of the day, making each day unique. It also is a good feeling to live and feel connected to the weather. The weather draws people into a connection with cosmic space. The change of the seasons indicates how humankind is living in an ever-changing cosmic context. We experience ourselves as being a part of it, but not at the centre.

For elderly people the weather gains even more importance. They become sensitive to the weather and will not usually leave home during rain or snow. In this way the entries about the weather form the base for the feeling of the whole day. This importance is reflected by Ans Swart's decision to draw the basic colour of the day from the weather. The Dutch word 'weer' not only means 'weather' but also 'again', giving a double meaning to the title 'Weer is mijn moeder'.

Codes and contact:

The structure of the calendar is the visual representation of the mother's entries. In the catalogue presented here both levels have been put side by side: the factual level of the entries - the source material- and the coded level of the artistic representation. Introducing a code gives the entries a universal character. Ans Swart develops a specific biographic art form in which coding generalizes the private. The work gains a greater openness and transparency and offers the viewer space for interaction.

Ans Swart has encoded the original notes. She develops a system based on four visual codes: Colour, line, direction, level (high or low). Colour surface and direction of brush stroke form the code indicating the weather. Lines, their colour and level in the day-rectangle are the code for social contacts. Social contact is a strip determined by colour: the closer family is marked in dark red, the children in red, grandchildren in orange, great-grandchildren in yellow, friends in purple, neighbours in brown, church and community life in ochre, shopping in English red. A warm colourscale has been chosen for the social life, expressing active involvement. The place where the 'social line' crosses the day, indicates the type of contact: lower lines mean a visit, a direct physical contact, a line in the middle means contact by telephone, a conversation and a line in the higher parts (air) means the thought, to have thought of someone.

Interaction:

Interaction with other artists happens for Ans especially during performances. The series of images related to the weather is also an interaction, like relating to another person. The mother delivers the model, the script. With her entries she sets the colour(tone). Ans says, she is the director. As the mother defines the girl's life at the beginning the way it always is), so is she defining the piece of art and its structure at the end of her life (because Ans wants it to be that way). The circle of life between mother and daughter completes itself in this way. The movement is back to its origin, but on a different level.

Living and Dying:

Living and dying and their connection are no strangers to the work of the artist. The teachings of Tibetan Buddhist have strongly influenced her views on these matters. She participated in the Utrecht Festival About Death (1989) with the performance 'Gedoodverfd' which was introduced by a reading of Sogyal Rinpoche. The teaching of Buddhist haven't directly influenced the work 'Weather is my mother', it is not a Buddhist-meditative work as such. But Buddhism has prepared Ans Swart to engage with death, to not deny death, but by accept death as a part of life, and created conditions for her intense and long-term artistic examination of her mother's last year of life.