Scheihing, Vivian
Vivian Scheihing's paintings can be described as interior landscapes, often charged with memories of Valdivia, Chile, a city surrounded by mountains and volcanoes where the artist was born. The reoccurring themes and objects such as fences, closed doors, branchless trees and sand are essential elements of Scheihing's artistic language, representing, in her own words, 'traces found on my lost ways'.
The use of colour plays an important, symbolic role in Vivian Scheihing's work. The artist explains: 'Many of my paintings are red because they refer to the interweaving of life and death, bleeding and passion, rage and ritual sacrifice; my ochres indicate a deeply rooted obsession with earth. Black represents nothingness, it is the strongest force in my paintings: in my case, the process of painting has its starting point in a darkness.'
Abstraction in Scheihing's painting comes from a real subject matter. It gives form to strong emotions of anguish, sadness and happiness: 'I don't succeed in understanding this unknown region. If one day I find the meaning, I will stop painting.'
Monika McConnell
Ashes on the South
1979