Liselott Johnsson

Painting Beyond Painting: from Pensiero Debole to an Expanded Practice Liselott Johnsson

Intrigued by the formal boundaries of painting as they relate to objects and architecture, I explored materials, space, color, and geometry to study the limits of their relationship. Throughout my master of visual arts program, I was inspired by Gianni Vattimo?s theory of ?weak thought? ?pensiero debole? to allow myself to dismantle, shift, transgress, and corrupt boundaries adopted in my practice as painter, designer, and architect. For every new painting project, I would start with a new premise. In a process characterized by a continuous destabilizing shift, I changed creative approaches, painting methods, materials, and compositions, resulting in a diverse body of work. In this book, I chose to focus on color, geometry, and the expanded field of painting. By allowing the boundaries of my painting practice to open up, my painting practice has become the generator for my work as an artist, designer, and architect. Pensiero debole and my MFA program have allowed my art to expand and transform, so that I now understand there are no set boundaries for what a painting practice can encompass or what it can allow an artist to create.