Holding
Holding is holding on. And lingering.
The series grew from a larger painting to which Laufer returned after a long time. She cut out the passages that continued to hold her attention: particular brushstrokes, colours and encounters between forms. Cutting allowed her to keep working with what still mattered to her.
Released from the larger image, the painted forms acquire their own edges. They bend, overlap and cast shadows. Some are held together within frames; others extend across the wall, where the eye carries a line or a colour from one piece to the next. Connections emerge, then shift as the viewer looks again.
As in Laufer’s work with recollections, images and texts, something is taken up again and given a different place. Here, the material is her own painting, and the attachment lies in the act of looking. How much can change while something of the earlier whole remains? What is preserved is not the original painting, but the possibility of continuing to look.
Photos © Waldemar Brzezinski
