Christina Kapetaniou paints with oil colour upon linen canvases. Using the colour field practice, translucent and opaque layers are interwoven, while materials’ imprints such as corneal filaments, leaves, and orange peels are incorporated.
During the painting process upon the canvas, her behavioural response is jointly formed by the existence of extrinsic stimuli, such as colours, sounds, smells and the creation of an intrinsic visual stimulus, the visualization of the painting image. These stimuli activate the almond-shaped nucleus of her emotional memory (the amydgala). Extrinsic stimuli rekindle her autobiographical memory while the intrinsic visual stimulus modifies her emotional imprints. The depiction of her visualization into a painting image is perceived as an extrinsic visual stimulus by viewers, activating respectively their amygdala to respond. So, viewers become “spect-actors” who act, and therefore, modify their behavioral responses and patterns by altering emotional imprints of their autobiographical memory. What is the core of such experiences is the holistic participation of individuals in reforming their existence. Sentimentalism activates such processes. Moreover, materials which are representatives of humans’ emotional imprints interlinked with experiences, memories, perspectives, are embodied visual signs/elements within color fields and brushstrokes so as to enrich these experiences.
Christina Kapetaniou
