Catalina de Erauso | Interview with Rusudan Khizanishwili
Painters have not always painted flowers, lush landscapes and tables full of appetizing food throughout history. Many painters have used the language of colors to immortalize injustices and pave the way to fight against them. Having said that, there are few female painters in the history of humanity. But those who managed to paint have shown an exceptional sensitivity to the injustices as it can be seen in the way they have translated them into colors from their perspective as women, especially those women who suffer stigma, often in silence and solitude. The thick hands of Modersohn-Becker´s female farmers or some of Frida Kahlo’s heartbreaking paintings are good examples of this.
Rusudan, a Tbilisi living Georgian painter, is a young woman with an abundant international projection and presence. She masters the primary color palette with innovative subjects. She says that art has the power to disturb and should disturb. From the very beginning of her career she was concerned with depicting otherness in colors. Among others, the viewer’s reaction to what is different, whether it is fabrics to dress and decorate, faces or facial expressions that are either difficult to interpret or cause rejection, odd shaped hands or body expressions in fantastic people and animals that swarm her canvas. In her large sized paintings, she creates scenes full of flowers and happy fabrics whose counterpoint is the “other” personalized in the human being and the reaction of rejection, astonishment or fear that it causes.
The woman is an essential part of Rusudan’s work. She participated in an exhibition in New York whose title was «defining otherness». The leitmotif of the exhibition was to offer a space for artists who address the otherness in their works. Amongst other things, it was about capturing the reactions of those who witness the “different”. Women are at the center of her work, both as «different» and as observer of the different. We talked to her about the features that define her work.
Distinctive features of her work
- The shape of the lips of your female characters is striking and very unusual in the physiognomy of Georgian women as well as in the Byzantine tradition that is omnipresent in the frescoes of Georgian churches. Why have you chosen this type of lip?
As you can see almost everything I do in art is centered around humans, humanity, and bodies of human beings. I imagine different parts of human’s body as different word symbols, stand-ins for the chapters of a book I am painting at that moment, shapes of these parts have no special meanings, but the colors are most important. And of course, the old Georgian masters of art are always on my mind.
- Throughout the centuries, painters who painted hands chose long and delicate hands, especially for women. The shape and proportions of your hands is unique. What role do the hands play in portraying the different?
The hand – you have absolutely rightly noticed this signifier in my art; if you are following my art you can clearly see how hands have changed over the years. Their size and shapes are changing. When I look back at my paintings from 2010 -2013 for example I can see how small and tender the hands are, and how they became more powerful and strong after. Sometimes you can see my figures without arms at all. Analyzing this now it seems that in my painting I am always interacting with the world through my hands, how can I touch the world, sometimes I feel broken and sometimes I am looking for forgiveness.
- One has the impression that “the different” transmits certain positive messages by virtue of the shape of the arms and the one who observes that hint does not understand. Are these misunderstandings something that you observe on a daily basis and want to capture in your paintings?
Absolutely right, these daily basis moments are in. I can definitely say that each of my paintings is like a chapter of a book that I am going to paint forever.
- The faces of some of your women have intense colors where the contours are almost missing and do not express any known feeling at first sight. Why?
Yes, this is a very subjective interaction with the world reflecting the fact that sometimes I am also missing the borders. Absolutely diving into myself and there is no place or time for the correct shaping I connect with the world through my paintings and they can outline some of the chemical progress.
- Flowers form the background and sometimes the foreground in your work. They fill your canvases with bright and cheerful colors. When you see the work from a distance, it looks like an orchard that invites you to get closer. And if you approache it, you see the scenes of the “other” and the reactions that it provokes. Is it a trap that you tend to the viewer?
As we are children of the Earth we are always in a very very tight connection with the universe. Flowers are growing from the soil and through our bodies and I take them as a connection tool between our past, present and future.
- Very unique patterned fabrics appear on your canvases, far from the Renaissance silks or baroque velvets for which there were fees when working with the brush. What role does stamping play in your work?
Because we came to this world from the past we have that deep connection with the whole History of Art, the heritage is a very important soil for me. Ancient times and the times of Renaissance have a great influence on my art. Even the round canvases and different shapes of canvases were invented during the Renaissance and this always reminds me that I am a link in this chain.
- You don´t have many still lives but I am struck by the fact that a not very common element appears in them: a sewing machine. Do these machines hide a secret?
I do love painting still lives and when I paint them I always remember Matisse who is my all-time favourite in art. The sewing machine is a very important object for me that has a personal connection. My grandmother was sewing all the time, I can’t remember her without it. She was teaching me also and I was helping her. The sewing machine I paint is a form of dedication.
The educational value of art
- If you were giving a lecture to a class of children about ten years old, what would you say if they told you that some of your paintings are scary?
Yes, that’s true. Some of them are not easy to accept and I would love to show them that we all have our fears and we shouldn’t be afraid to let them into ourselves. Only this way what appears like a fear could be controlled.
- Do you think that, if museums made guided visits framing those visits in the sociocultural context of the works at stake, people would go more to museums?
I definitely think so, museums are made by the people and they are for everyone, not just for a certain group of people, maybe this is another fear also and they are afraid to look unsafe.
- Do the following feminine themes appeal to you? If you could choose one, which one would you choose to paint first? Hiring wombs, sexual exploitation, femicides or the multi-employment of women?
Ah, they all are very important and absolutely not acceptable for me, I cannot choose the one, they all are terrible!
- What do you think of the idea of a club to exchange art, in other words, art sharing?
You know, because I work alone in my studio all the time I really would love to share some of my discoveries with a group of artists. Sharing is the most important thing because it helps to raise us and to continue self-discovering. As regards art sharing, I find it great. Sometimes I trade my pieces of art with other interesting artists in order to include them into collections without buying them.
Intime question
- What do you think about people who speculate with art in order to make money?
This is very sad and I believe that the real artist never thinks about earning money in the first place, because that can kill the truth in art. Unfortunately, we can see a lot of negative examples in the art history and in the contemporary art world. Moreover, as history of art shows us, there have been patrons and investors. We cannot avoid it because this world is all about money.
This interview had been completed just the day George Floyd was assassinated. On the occasion of his assassination, Rusudan Khizanishwili dedicated this painting to him.
If you wish to read this interview in Spanish, click HERE
If you wish to see her paintings, click HERE