Constellation #14, Amarie Bergman: mixed media on cotton canvas; 32.5 x 114cm 2000
A few years after moving to Sydney, I made an enigmatic series of work in 2000 on the backs of some old paintings. Not just any old paintings! No, these were ones whose colourful abstract fronts had once been confidently shown on the walls of Vancouver’s commercial galleries, touched by white gloves, lit up by halogens.
The new paintings looked different: white and black, inner+outer space-y, especially #14. Like Cinderella at the stroke of midnight, the Constellation series carried a metaphorical glass slipper. It became a turning point where geometry was favoured and when strict colour limitation led to a thought-driven / less spontaneous, yet oddly enough, more intuitive practice. The spell was cast.
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