Digging deeper into art often leads to working on a series of works. It’s logical – you open a new problem you need to solve, a new question you need to ask, and you can’t do it through one work only. You get obsessed/ inspired with this thing, and you look for new and new ways it can develop. And end up with a series of works.

While thinking about my process (series after series), I’ve also become aware of some deep cuts in my creative process. So today, I wanted to share the greatness and dangers of these.

My last “creative cut” happened after a 10-year fruitful creative period. (It was a few months after my father died.)

I was preparing a big exhibition in a beautiful ex-convent space. I planned to exhibit six installations in six rooms – some old works, some new. It should’ve felt like a crown of a 10-year creative cycle. But it didn’t.

Instead, the coming exhibition made me realize I felt imprisoned inside the series of works I was known for.

So even before I got new ideas and made any new work, I announced in the catalog (of the exhibition) a future change in my creative ship’s course. I even added a subtitle to the exhibition title. The new title was: Trans-formations or The Farewell Party.

After the exhibition, a new phase started for me. I felt both relieved and terrified at the same time.

Before I go on, I have to say I wouldn’t recommend making these deliberate  “cuts” in the creative process to anyone. Stepping outside a series of works before stepping into a new one feels like stepping into the void. And sometimes falling. It’s so exhausting emotionally, and there is always this danger you stop working.

What I did in this period (and I would recommend you do it without making a cut) was that I concentrated on listening to myself. I wanted to hear the timid sounds of my soon-to-become new “thing”. So I experimented, tried to be open, listened, and tried again. And again.

And then, luckily, some parts started to fall well together, at first randomly, then more systematically. I started realizing what I was doing and went deeper. I felt inspired and couldn’t wait to go to the studio. My concentration ruled.  I forgot the feeling of falling through the void and started to feel like flying…

A new series of works was born.