Confinement 1, 2020

Adolf Gil  

I’m interested in light, which is in fact the base of research of my entire work. It’s now 21 years ago that I decided to investigate and study light, and throughout a long process of work and observation, I’ve been developing and creating my own personal way of expression.

My paintings have been created to be in continuous transformation, to change colors; they have to be looked at for a long period of time as they depend on the light that comes into them, so I take advantage of sunlight (in a room with natural light there’s never the same kind of light throughout the day) which is what will transform the painting throughout the day. In my most recent studies and research of light, I’ve been testing a new type of pigment called luminescent (or photoluminescent pigment), which has the capability of absorbing, storing and then emitting light; therefore the painting emits light when it’s dark (by releasing the light energy that was absorbed) and this quality allows me to take a few further steps in my development of light research.

The first thing it allows me to do is to create a painting which shows itself to you, by emitting the necessary light that enables the viewer to see it.

The second thing I can do is to continue establishing a visual conversation in a state where there is no visual dialogue (if there’s no light we cannot see).

The third thing I’m allowed to do is to complete a 24 hour cicle of transformation, in day light the painting goes from one image to the next one depending on the light it gets, and at the same time it gets charged by absorbing the light; with night (or darkness) the painting goes through a new transformation, now it’s the one emitting light, the image changes and this change lasts until day light, and again the cicle starts once more.

I don’t want to represent, what I want is to mean. My work is basically figurative painting, but I dont intend to represent any form, I simply use the form to mean; this is, I use the form as a sign or a metaphor to express what I want to mean.