Contemplating the images Yohannes offers us, we enter a world of myth: a plane that demands a fluidity of cognition and memory. We are asked to appraise and reimagine the predetermined terms of our existence. This is art that lays bare an intricate network of inert definitions and explanations told to ourselves in an attempt to present life as a static, containable entity. The inherent fragility of the unexamined world is unmasked within the gaze of images loaded with perhaps the most valuable commodity of our time: the power to inspire questioning. The magic of Yohannes’s work is in her starkness and use of symbolism. It journeys through the uncharted terrain of the inner world. This is art that invokes the unnamed. |
I would like to expand Yohannes’s title to “Painter of the Indivisible”. I view her work over and over again, and I always feel like I come to a halt at a place where the work simply stops giving of itself and reaches a point of non-divisibility. At this point, I am required to go within myself to unlock the possibilities of further depths. I am forced to imagine, to create stories about the images, to delve into the world of new myth. This process unravels one of Yohannes’s most poignant contributions; her work’s capacity to highlight the value of myth and new symbolism in our contemporary times.
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I always approach a painting by first creating the character. I’ve recently come to realise that, in many ways, the characters I paint are not only facets of myself, but are also universal, and represent every other soul on this planet. Once created, the character then dictates the painting. This is the process I enjoy most - allowing the characters time to reveal themselves to me and lend me the narrative to follow. Curiosity and the pursuit of self-expression have put me on a path linked with themes of spirituality, mythology, the supernatural, and the world of ritual, all of which are reflected in my art. My artistic life has blended with my spiritual life, and now the two are forever bound. -Daniela Yohannes
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