“When the Earth Remembers” is a gestural act of salvation, a primal ritual that confronts personal trauma by dissolving the self into a liminal, elemental landscape. The title signifies a profound connection between the body and the earth, suggesting that personal history and loss are absorbed and perpetually echoed by the environment itself. Rooted in the concept of hauntology—the enduring presence of the past—my work explores this liminal space of psychological landscapes, suggesting that memory is not merely internal but something held by the world around us. This concept is reinforced by the belief that we are not separate from the earth and return to it after death, whether through physicality or memory. My artistic process is used to confront conflicting claims of survivor’s guilt and unearth the humanity within personal trauma. I aim to validate the concept of finding control in surrender by allowing the gestural, full-body application of paint to guide the outcome, revealing a more honest, integrated human narrative. The essence of this practice is a relentless, obsessive introspection, a ritual to replace rigid, singular truths and find contentment in the complexity of a godless world—an approach that accepts an abundance of knowledge over any single belief system.
The paintings are executed on a large scale using a process-led methodology with a limited palette of earth tones and raw pigment, directly connecting the practice to the elemental. The use of landscape acts as a symbol of this liminal space—a transitional, in-between place that the figures wander through and where the paintings themselves act as a container for the ideas I hold about the world. Figures emerge from a chaotic, abstracted foundation, utilizing paint as a sculptural medium to create ambiguous forms that challenge the boundary between the figure and the land. The figures are representative of memories being absorbed by the earth, reflecting the ancient concept of the dissolution of the self into the environment. Likewise, the figures themselves are liminal beings, caught in a state of becoming, emerging from the canvas but never fully separate from it. By navigating visual dualities—light and dark, salvation and damnation—my work aims to transform intense emotions into a conversation. This embodies the past’s enduring physical presence, as the inscription of memory is not just psychological.
I am a painter focused on utilizing obsessive introspection as a generative, daily practice. My work is dedicated to exploring the philosophical and emotional connections between personal trauma and the elemental landscape, seeking the primal act of painting as a means to cosmic understanding.
Signed, S. Raelle.
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