Zoé Aczél

`Divide et Impera` group exhibition at Toolip Art Gallery.

Dates: 30/05/25 – 20/06/25
Location: Ballgasse 6, 1010 Vienna

When I paint, the patterns move in rhythm, evolving instinctively as I respond to music, until they reach what feels like the order of fate. Visual motifs has followed me since my childhood, often times in the shape reminiscent of a rib cage.

I started reflecting on how this visceral image appear intuitively as a composition. I wanted to tap into the interconnectedness between my sense of self, nature, and my ancestors — how their influences ripple through, shaping who we are today. Similarly how the pigment seeps into fabric, their overlapping impacts merge and settle, gradually consolidating into a mosaic that hides bigger meanings.

Through uncovering more about my family’s past my inside world comes alive—it grows, finds me and eventually dissolves into an image. These memory-stains speak to something beyond the self—a higher place that voices our shared and connected fates. The painting and the process becomes a metaphor, a mirror that confronts me with my internal world. In this process, I must act without knowing the outcome, learning to trust uncertainty. Paradoxically, this uncertainty offers comfort, helping me to find peace in the struggle to remain present. I surrendered to the act of making, allowing the material to move with my emotions.

The paint sinks into the silk-like surface, the fabric absorbs it, opening up in unexpected ways. The colors expand and bleed as if biting into the material
—burning from the inside out. I believed that, in time, I could shape the material into an honest expression. Each day, the fabric absorbed my feelings, and as the pigment burned into it, it eventually built enough presence to be manipulated. The stains spread like emotion through the body—unrecognizable, but familiar. I can’t always name them, but I feel their presence. Somehow, they activate a sense of knowing.
Through this, I encountered echoes of medieval structures, resonating with something collective and ancestral. The canvas became a portal—connecting me to both myself and to those who have passed, delivering messages and presence from another realm. Organic patterns emerged as I worked instinctively, tapping into the unknown and uncovering truths about the self and the unseen world. Music played a key role—unlocking inner channels where color and form flowed from within.

As I was researching The Elements as the starting point of creation, I came across an illustration of the Great Chain of Being. I was struck by the mysterious alignment between this ancient visual representation of cosmic order and the organic forms emerging from my own paintings. These forms, echo the structure
of the body and suggest a deeper connection between the mind, soul, and nature. By exploring the concept of the self, I began to understand why these images emerge when I stay present and open to new ways of thinking and being.

The Great Chain of Being—a traditional hierarchical structure of all matter and life—offered a powerful metaphor through which I could explore the self as a layered, sacred system. Viewed through a Jungian perspective, it reflects individuation: the process of becoming whole by integrating all parts of the self, including the shadow—the unconscious aspects we suppress. I came to see that I carry my own personal
chain of being, a circular system revealed only when all aspects are acknowledged and accepted. Society often conditions us to separate body from mind, reason from emotion, sacred from mundane, leaving us fragmented. Instead of looking outward for answers, I turned inward—to instinct, the body, and synchronicities—and found meaning there. By reclaiming the sacredness of all things, I emphasized the interconnectedness of life. It made me reflect on impulse—how even the smallest gestures, can leave lasting marks, just as inherited experiences shape us in ways we only begin to understand over time. The material itself became a metaphor for this. The way the paint sank into the fabric, disappearing and resurfacing, echoed the nature of trans-generational trauma—how emotions and stories pass silently
through bodies and time. The work unfolded between presence and absence, past and present, mirroring how we carry what came before us.

Historically, spiritual traditions have used the The Great Chain of Being as a framework for contemplation and meditation. I engage with this through painting as a ritual and a spiritual practice. The painting becomes a vessel for both solitude and euphoria. Through discipline, I examine critical thoughts, open myself to them,
using the act of painting as transcendental meditation to navigate inner turmoil. I center myself, to face challenges as they come. I let go of predictions and expectations. In this way, painting becomes more than an act of creation—it
becomes a way of being. It offers an in between space where I allow meaning to emerge through the act itself. I learned to sit with the unknown, to accept what I cannot control. Drawing from the symbolism of water as primordial chaos and creation, the painting channels the fluidity, adaptability, and intuition. The Great Chain of Being resonates deeply with the interconnectedness of all life and the possibility of a higher spiritual reality. It invites a shift in perspective: to see our place in the universe not as fixed, but as fluid—ever-evolving, expansive, and sacred. Through painting, I honour the shadow. I face what was hidden. I allow the material to carry emotion, to stain, to dissolve—revealing truth without words.