I focus on themes of domestic and global violence. Through paintings, sculptures, and installation-based work, I strive to transform materials of war into a critical mechanism. While using hand-manipulated materials to create purposefully aesthetically seductive experiences, I aspire to promote curiosity in the viewer. The media I select and mix with traditional ones, are fraught with terrible associations.
Manipulating deadly armaments, echoes my actions as a lifelong peace activist. Transforming these materials into art media involves processes that render their function impotent. Through saturating some materials with water, and separating them, I aim to transform these residues into catalysts of reflection.
My abstract landscapes began as meditations on past wars and have evolved into reflections of current events. Combining wet gunpowder grounds with liquid acrylics and brilliant watercolors, I invigorate surfaces. I produce these chaotic amalgams to reflect the contemporary moment.
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Michèle Colburn - Video Interview
Gunpowder series
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Introducing Michèle Colburn's
Gunpowder Series
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Michèle Colburn has been experimenting with gunpowder as a painting material since 2014. She is interested in the explosive substance’s inherent associations with war and violence, as well as it’s potential for tonal variation and texture. When mixed with water, the gunpowder is transformed from a volatile state to a stable one. Colburn’s process is then one of pouring, movement, and layering.
“Sometimes I must work fast and make quick decisions, and other times I’ll let layers sink in and dry for hours… When it dries, it might pool and leave silvery deposits that pick up the light, almost like a fine glitter.” She then accents the grey forms with watercolors that lend the works a mood, sometimes soft and subtle and sometimes intense and brilliant.
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“Artists often reflect the times, and 2020 was a globally traumatic year for the entire world… Artists are mirrors, if we chose to be.”
- Michèle Colburn
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“Political and peace activism is part of who I am, and all work is biographical in a way… I want people to take a moment and think about the associations of the materials and the collective damage they inflict.”
- Michèle Colburn
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“My art is communicative. I try to lure or seduce the viewer, wanting them to discover the materials and make their own connections from the exchange.”
- Michèle Colburn
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Image: Michèle Colburn at her studio in Washington, D.C., USA. Photo credit: Lee Stalsworth
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Ronewa Art Projects presents the beautiful and poignant works of American-Swiss artist Michèle Colburn. The online exhibition ‘In Plain Sight’ opens on January 20, showcasing Colburn’s current gunpowder and watercolor series of abstract works on paper.
"For a long time, I have been interested in working with materials that carry certain associations, weight, and even memory.” Colburn’s materials often contain an explicit legacy of violence. When manipulated and chemically transformed through her process, Colburn renders the gunpowder inactive. She disarms her materials, leaving them exposed to be quietly examined.
The gunpowder's destructive potential is contrasted by the finely-textured, flowing forms it creates on the paper. Colburn’s process is intuitive - pouring, tilting, painting, and layering - allowing the behavior of her materials to guide her. Watercolors accent and animate the monochrome tones of the gunpowder. The resulting abstract imagery captures a sense of movement and dynamism, like a quiet explosion, frozen and pacified on the page.
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The upcoming online exhibition ‘In Plain Sight’ with American-Swiss artist Michèle Colburn presents recent works from her stirring abstract series of gunpowder paintings.
Colburn employs symbolically loaded materials connected to violence and war. Through her process, she disarms the explosive substance and creates beautiful and poignant works that invite reflection on violent histories and current realities. The works soon on exhibit in the Ronewa viewing room were all created in 2020, many under Covid lockdown conditions in Washington, DC.
We caught up with Ms. Colburn and discussed her use of symbolic materials, her gunpowder painting process, and the personal and political contexts of her work. Our conversation took place just a day before the shocking events on January 6th in Washington, DC, and her works feel more relevant now than ever.
