Night vision
Lina Iris Viktor’s otherworldly canvases evoke the beauty of darkness
‘Some are born to sweet delight/Some are born to endless night.’ This haunting couplet from William Blake’s poem ‘Auguries of Innocence’ inspired the title of Lina Iris Viktor’s new exhibition at Autograph gallery in Shoreditch, which subverts the traditional polarities of day and night, light and darkness. ‘As a society, we have this very negative association around blackness – it’s seen as scary, nefarious – but I’m trying to renegotiate those stereotypes in my work, presenting dark worlds that are uplifting instead of foreboding,’ explains Viktor.
A British-Liberian conceptual and performance artist who divides her time between New York and London, Viktor conjures up a mythical realm on canvas. Her opulent colour palette has its origins in historical traditions and cosmological ideas: swathes of black, the dark matter in our universe, fulfil an almost primal purpose, while heavy, sculptural gilding references ancient societies’ view of gold as a sacred metal, a conduit into the next life. Viktor serves as her own model for some of the works, daubing her skin with black paint and costuming herself in highly patterned African textiles. The works are emphatically not self-portraits; rather, the artist appears as a prophetess or a storyteller, resplendent against the backdrop of a shadowy, grey-scale landscape or gazing out defiantly at the viewer-voyeur from beneath her elaborate headdress.
At Autograph, visitors are invited to make their way through a gleaming golden alcove into a darkened ground-floor gallery filled with paintings, works on paper and an immersive, 12-panel installation, The Black Ark. Upstairs, a central altar-like structure houses a single portrait, Syzygy, whose goddess-like subject keeps watch over a meditative space painted entirely in ultramarine blue. ‘The colour has a very particular frequency that elicits calm,’ says Viktor, ‘and that’s what I want to do with all my work: to make people slow down, and to create an environment where they feel welcome to spend time.’
‘Lina Iris Viktor: Some are Born to Endless Night – Dark Matter’ is at Autograph (www.autograph.org.uk) until 25 January 2020.