The experimental film “sfumato” is based on a multi-channel video installation by Berlin-based artist Robert Seidel, pushing the limits of abstract painting in the digital age. In a time of complete virtualization of knowledge, work and monetary flows, painting finally can be in the same state of flux beyond the constraints of a physical material. The title refers to one of the four canonical painting modes of Renaissance art, a technique that emphasizes soft transition between colours and tones. By taking this concept of blurring clear lines and borders the spectral “all-over” composition offers a myriad of subtle gradations and erratic shifts of focal planes. “sfumato” unleashes a sublime moment of pure abstraction expanding the ideas of painting into an asymmetrical orchestration of video painting sequences. The source material is based on a convolute of analogue painting and drawing sketches by the artist, which were dissolved with a self-developed video synthesizer and fused into a continuous visual stream of prismatic colour volumes. “sfumato” is part of his ongoing research in the field of experimental, process-based “moving paintings”, which create a coherent and personal utopia of Robert Seidel, pointing towards the universal possibilities of art in the flow of history and its friction with today.
- Abstract
- Experimental
- Non-narrative