Gold does not illuminate what is visible.
It reveals what is in transformation.
There are images that arise as a form of resistance.
Counter-spell is a poetic act that opposes the destructive enchantment of history, violence and oblivion.
It is not a consoling form of magic, but a fractured gesture that breaks the spell and, while aware of its inability to redeem, preserves the possibility of bearing witness.
Counter-spell belongs to this ongoing inquiry.
In my artistic practice, pigments are not merely pictorial matter. They carry an ancient memory, a presence that travels across centuries. Metals, and gold in particular, introduce another dimension: not that of ornament, but of transformation.
Alchemy regarded gold as the culmination of a process of transmutation. Not a material achievement, but the symbol of an inner passage. This vision continues to resonate throughout my artistic research and contemporary painting practice.
The surfaces are built through stratifications, sedimentations and apparitions. Pigments, metals and light enter into dialogue within a process that allows traces of memory and possibilities of change to emerge. Each mark seeks a balance between what reveals itself and what remains hidden.
In Counter-spell, gold acts as a luminous threshold. It does not dissolve shadow, but passes through it. It is a presence that invites us to imagine transformation as an inner experience and a vision of what is possible.
Every authentic transformation requires an act of trust: the willingness to leave one form behind in order to welcome another.
Perhaps this is the deepest meaning of every counterspell.
Not to break an enchantment, but to generate a new possibility of vision.
Barbara Duran