Lore Vanelslande is a Belgian-born artist who now lives and works in Shanghai, China. She graduated as a textile designer on the KASK academy of fine arts in Ghent, Belgium but swiftly evolved into the domain of fine arts.
Lore always made a statement out of being as experimental as possible, seeing this as a way to go on a quest to look for the essence of what you are doing and why. Not only in an artistic context but in a broader context of life. This resulted in a variety of materials and structures being used but ultimately led her to the conclusion that what, for her, the core of her getting involved with the artistic was, existed in the process of creating things, more than in the goal to create a preconceptualised work or image. Rather it was the process of repetition, of drawing, thus creating images or complex structures and patterns and the fact that this repetitive act could constitute a certain inner peace, that attracted her the most. The act of repetition as a way to clear out ones head and get a state of mind of non-understanding.
Following this conclusion, she tried to isolate the process of repetition by very concentrated and precisely drawing little lines in a grid, thus weaving a pattern like image that was released from any demand of function, meaning or determination constraining it. The act of drawing, image and pattern making broke loose from the idea that drawings should create a result which carries a certain reference or meaning.
From here on she made a step to go and refine this technique and process of repetitive drawing to not only make grids, but to go and search for geometric forms and symmetries which could harmonize the technique and the catharsis that is created by it on the one hand, with the image constituted by it on the other hand. For this she started a research in the field of “sacred geometry” and the use of circles, patterns and symmetries in different religions, cultures and art. In most religions in the world complex geometric patterns are used in sacred places or contexts. The use of geometrical patterns is even older than religions but appeals strongly to them because they are without a real story and somehow allow you to find in them what you like. They refer to depths of the human psyche that go further back than these religions themselves. They precede any written religion but like religious texts they are multi- interpretable. They are, as a structure, already complete and phenomenologically obvious but invite to investigate their structure with your own point of view as the only given factor. However the spectator is invited to go into the structure as deep as he likes and find in it what he wants.
Lore‘s contemporary work does exactly this. It evolves to deeper and more complex structures, often using circle-like patterns, focusing on harmony, creating an image that is accessible by everybody but without forcing a predominant story onto anyone. You go in and out as you like. Hence the name of her solo- exhibition: “God is a circle”.
It is like Gilles Deleuze‘s concept of “rhizome”: it has many entrances which are equally important but which lead to a different story and a different experience. Art, not as a guide to follow the artist in her reflection upon the world, but as an invitation to experience, create and find new concepts and ideas about it.
In the art of Emma Kunz and Agnes Martin she found kindred souls that have been of great inspiration: Kunz in the way she also made geometrical structures with spiritual depth using graphic lines. For Kunz the content of her work furnished answers to her questions about life’s spiritual connections. Martin has been an inspiration in the way that she learns it is completely acceptable to make a painting without objective meaning. Her signature style is defined by an emphasis upon line, grids, and fields of extremely subtle color. Her paintings, statements, and influential writings often reflect an interest in Eastern philosophy, especially Taoism. Lore‘s art strongly refers to this spiritual line within minimalism.
Furthermore the inspiration given by the scientific work of N. Haramein and his resonance project, which searches for grand unified theories led to the conclusion that nature, both in it‘s biggest and smallest appearance, also consists of geometrical and symmetrical structures. These quantum physical influences in combination with the sacred geometry give a highly cosmological and universal dimension to the overall image created in Lore‘s work which beneath its aesthetic nature invites to both an ascetic and contemplative approach, the choice of which is put in the hands of the observer. You can constantly alternate between these two approaches.
God is a circle