Filippa Arrias «

Ever since this is central in my work, as is the relationship between the Self and the Other.

The common part of the identity has been of interest to me and I have often used the idea of the human being as a bearer of roles. I have often played with the picture of twins as well as the reflected image.

The artistic achievements of Giotto are of central importance to me. The earlier non-spatial surface is folded out and creates a space around the human being initiating the process towards individualisation.

Visually the human beings are still identical, but their different modes of action indicates who they are.- Is it really Judas Iscariot ( in Giotto´s painting) kissing Christ? In Giotto´s image of the drama the recognition is obvious. It might as well be Jesus kissing himself, with Judas as a startled observer.

I remain free in relation to art-history and consider it as being mankind´s story about itself. You can question the story, make it continue, play with it and so on.

My actual project concerns the Veronica-motif in which different paintings represent different questions concerning the perception. Is the picture more real than reality itself? Vera icon.

I also paint interiors of rooms - places where "it happened". This summer I was in Latvia and used empty apartments left behind by the Soviets in the beginning of the nineties. These rooms are naked and at the same time reveal a powerful history.

I want to show the difference; between circumstances closely related; approaching the turningpoint; When does the criminal become free from guilt? When does the painting get independent? When does the good intention turn into an empty gesture?

I am interested in the relationship between presence and absence /attitude-attitudelessness.

The self is separated but everything between us is shared.

I use images existing in my near surroundings; art-history, mass-media, everdaylife, my earlier paintings, depending on the project.

Mass-media seems to have taken over from art and religion the role of reflecting mankind.

The consequences can only be imagined. This fact strengthens rather than undermines our need of genuine expressions.

There is a joy in existing. There is a form of knowledge that is sensual, that is hard to explain or defend."

Filippa Arrias

Biography