Then I thought of Ariadne’s Thread, the Minotaur’s Labyrinth, Theseus’ Waiting… I relived those paths that seem to have no return, those departures left behind, but also the hope of change, of getting out of situations that sometimes seem too twisted.

 

The time loop that unravels and remakes itself, passing through the existence of each of us, is present in many of these works. Here, the ball appears as an eternal element in motion, in search of a path… which we never know where it will lead us… The Rhei Slope, this unchanging flow of time, in a constant change that leads, in the end, to our own transformation.

 

The whole “Threads of Time” series presents itself as a web of Penelope, eternally waiting for Ulysses, as a mystical struggle, through balance, through patience, with Time itself, in a perpetual attempt to outwit it, to hold it in place. The characters are in a state of seemingly peaceful waiting.

 

The use of the gourd as a central, repetitive element, the pumpkin of immortality, brings with it the symbolism of eternal life, invoking health, well-being, prosperity, natural blessing, in a permanent link with the everyday, with the surrounding reality.

 

Ioana Stana manages to convey the passing of time and the viewer’s personal questions. The whole series is a test of imagination and lucidity that flows abundantly from her canvases.

 

The composition and chromatics are balanced, stable, the message is one of contemplation. Tough subject matter, a tailor-made approach.”

 

 

 

“Strong emotion reverberated by the ineluctably aesthetic and exciting visual sensation unequivocally defines Ioana Stana’s exhibition – Time Threads.

 

As its very title suggests, the artist reveals a series of works springing up around some remarkable temporal milestones, embroidered in a respite of memory on the precious fabric of the precious fibers of vibrant fibers of feelings and strong passions, of the rough threads of self-searching and thin threads of illusions, not infrequently gently woven in suffering.

 

This approach shaped by artistic gestures full of sensitivity seems an evocative tapestry of a universal time, past and future, unconsciously laid on emotional layers, with tenderness and personality, subtly revealing from the shadows an assumed resignation that constantly seeps out from behind the canvases.

 

Along the delicately imposed path, the viewer is tempted by the probing eyes of the characters that populate the paintings to take part in the magical journey, from the beginnings of the search for Truth and Love to the moment of the answers to dilemmas and the consolidation of convictions, discreetly expressed in a manifesto of the contestation of counterfeit and obscure values, which gestate in the void revealed in the harmonious shape of the quiet gourds peeping from behind the fire or the spinning wheel, the stories from the stove. For nothing brings this atmosphere closer than that of a fairy tale, playful and mysterious at the same time, in which we take refuge in ineffable moments.

 

We find ourselves in the children who watch in wonder at the nests of fantastic birds’ eggs, guarded by elves and fauns, becoming stalkers watched by eyes hidden in the most unexpected places, watching over us. And, without feeling it, we enter this encrypted world where reality interweaves with the dreamlike in a diaphanous network of transparent strips behind which we can see sleeping, tearful or astonished faces, naturally completing the frame. In plain view are the symbols that Ioana proposes to express her state of mind and sincerely reveal the inner self. In our attempt to decipher them, we rediscover familiar moments and sensations, the memories of our own experiences, in the signs of fecundity, of healing or of blood, of faith or doubt.

 

This artistic journey is an uninhibited and liberating testimony of feelings, mirroring us in the circular time of a dream that we would like to keep alive.”

 

Irena Andrea Prodănescu

 

Architect Member of U.A.R.R.