Linen Collection
Years ago, I began collecting old, handwoven linen. Some pieces may be fifty years old, others perhaps a hundred.
I see them as remnants of a disappearing material culture. Someone grew the flax, processed the fibre, spun the thread and wove the cloth. The plant, the human hand, labour and time are still present in the material.
Many of these textiles eventually remained folded in a cupboard or chest. They
were inherited, changed hands and waited, while the world that knew how they were made and what they meant gradually disappeared around them.
Linen is a slow material.
It carries traces of its making, storage, touch and use. Its irregularities, stains,
damage and fraying are not flaws to me. They belong to the history of the material.
As a painter, I therefore do not see raw linen as an empty support. The rhythm of the weave, the irregularity of the threads, its translucency and the way the material changes already have a visual presence of their own.
When I intervene, the material responds. Casein stiffens and contracts it. Wax
changes its translucency and touch. Stitching pulls and deforms it.
What interests me is how far I can intervene while allowing the linen to remain
linen.
Fércek Series
I return to paintings I made years ago, looking for what still remains valid to me. I select and cut. What remains of the old work is what has survived its own history.
The painted fragment is placed on old, handwoven linen. Materials from two
different times meet: hardened, layered paint and a cloth made long before it.
Joining them is difficult. The needle resists the thick paint, the linen thread pulls, the cloth shifts, and the painted surface sometimes cracks. The materials resist each other.
Hence the title: FÉRCEK.
The Hungarian word "férc" refers to a temporary or provisional stitch. It holds things together without concealing that they remain separate. Here, however, I am not repairing an accidental rupture. I create the rupture myself: I cut, relocate and make a new connection.
In the process, the traces of joining become part of the work: stitches, cracks,
waves, raised edges and the resistance of the materials themselves.
The stitch does not resolve their estrangement. It holds them together.
Fércek
2026
Mixed media on linen canvas: linen collage, reclaimed paint fragments, casein, oil, acrylic.
40x40 cm each
Fércek - Unanchored
Physically fixed. Visually unanchored.
In FÉRCEK, materials from two different times meet. The stitch holds them together, but does not resolve their estrangement.
In the circular objects, another consequence of cutting becomes important. The painted fragment loses both its original place and its orientation.
A circle has no natural horizon. It does not define what is above and what is below. The fragment therefore no longer belongs to the coordinate system of the original painting. It can be rotated; there is no single correct orientation.
Cutting takes away its place. The circle takes away its direction.
Fércek - Unanchored
2026
Mixed media on linen canvas: linen collage, reclaimed paint fragments, casein, oil, acrylic.
Diameter 30 cm each
