CONSCIENCE - Vernissage

About

A common perception is that the motions of an artist are characterised by flashes of insight that arise from the subconscious reservoirs of the mind and brain. Alternatively, with conviction, an artist may take matters into their own hands and act upon the flowing forces of intuition and create with conscience, especially in reponse to a significant life experience or trauma.

In his series of paintings, 'One God', and his installation, 'Silver Lover', for the exhibition CONSCIENCE, artist Erling Viktor works with the conscientious contradictions of right/wrong and guilt/innocence in human behaviour. The resulting imagery combines the motives of man and animal, man and 'machine', the Superego (morality) and the Id (primitive).

The human conscience is one's moral compass. A magic weapon to navigate through the constellaton of life. Conscienceness is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system - impelling one toward right or wrong. Conscience is introspection and subjective in character – an intimate set of personal laws. However, when one experiences trauma that clouds the brain - that line of right/wrong can become blurred and harder to define.

Erling Viktor has created this series of work for his exhibition, CONSCIENCE, as a direct reponse to a very significant period in his life where he lost control, found it again, and everything in between. In the midst of a toxic relationship - having reached his highest threshold for suffering, the King inside of him burst out one day, and Viktor took the courageous step to turn away for good from everything that had come to know.

With that boldness came some confronting realizations about his psyche. Alone and uneasy, Viktor had internal conflicts about himself and the purpose of life, felt nearly hopeless, and went to a very dark place. In the wake of it all, he just let himself go. Faced wih tumultuous times, one can become something almost inhumane, like a machine on autopilot, or anilmalistic even - horns and all.

In these instances, you can be are your own biggest danger - self destruct even, and Erling nearly did. When hitting rock bottom, vigilance might be the only saviour. Confront and tame the primitave tendancies before they consume you. Have conversations with your conscience about how to proceed. Place yourself in the crossfire of clarity and pain.

Viktor had these deep conversations with himself and emerged from the ashes like a Phoenix. In the works featured in the exhibition CONSCIENCE, the artist share his narrrative of darkness and vulnerabilty, faces all versions of himself, and slowly starts to bask in the glow of redemption.