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Vojnich paints a bleak world. Whether on a street scene in Tibet or a prison cell in Kampuchea, the images are dense and solid. The paintings show no people, and there is no reference to time or place, just corners, part of impenetrable walls.
Corners are the centre of this silent and heavy world, the meeting of horizontal and vertical surfaces, offering a point of reference to someone who is never present in the paintings. It is a mathematically determined environment: everything is straight, but nothing is parallel. The forms are dictated by logic, but no one is present to understand the logic and follow the path that runs around the corners. The images offer a picture of human existence, of lives formed, to rise into arches, then fall away in gaps. The only soft element in these paintings is light.
Looking out through a door, nothing disturbs the peace of inner space, only the rays of sunlight burning into the dark shade on a wall. But the light does not fill the image and the shadows are vague.
Looking at these paintings, one gets an increasingly strong impression that we are in a world turned inside out. What we see are rooms, corridors and cellars in the human soul, and the light is cast by memories, encounters and life experiences. This is why the shadows do not end in sharp lines, this is why all other details are missing. Entering this world requires the same daring spirit as to descend into the Inferno, but without a guide.
Author: Eszter Götz
