The Birth of an Idea
An art show honouring Paul Huntington
ida ivanka kubler
Ida Ivanka (born January 3, 1978, Bulgaria) is an international artist based in London.
“Up to my 7th year, I lived with my grandparents in a small village in South Bulgaria, almost at the border to Greece. The village was well known for its silkworm sericulture. I often was sitting under the mulberry trees, painting silk cocoons with reddish paint I made from crushed red bricks. The silk cocoons became the initial material for my artwork.” (The artist, 2012)
The first piece from The Birth of an Idea Series was born in 2010 in London’s Chelsea College of Art in Pimlico next door to Tate Britain. It was commissioned by the Chelsea college library. Why do people go to libraries? To get inspired with their work; to get assistance in life dilemmas. The artwork had to be abstract and draw people and make the visitors fall in love with it. Something universal that each individual understood. So the artist decided to create something tactile and something unfolding with positive emotions like light, hope, openness, rebirth and warmth.
During a show at Lisson Gallery in May 2011, Ida meets arts patron and art dealer Paul Huntington and he had the idea to exhibit her artworks in Notting Hill. One day while walking they passed by the Westbourne Grove Church ArtSpace and thus the first show With The Birth of An Idea series took place in year 2012. Organic in appearance and abstract in presence this series feature simple circle settings consisting of an abundance of painted and sculptured silk cocoons positioned on large canvases. Using what she calls “imaginative touch”, Ida transforms the cocoons from their original identity into transcendent assemblages of colors and shapes reminiscent of Indian Mandalas or ancient Greek mosaics.
Ida’s Birth of an Idea series has been recognized by the Behring Institute for Medical Research as having a positive influence on public health.
Ida has worked internationally often at her art collector’s locations and her artworks found home in the UK, Guernsey, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Bulgaria, Spain, India, Netherlands, Australia and the USA.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Capturing the beauty of transformation, the empty cocoon represents the completed process of change and its success. The brightness of the colors celebrates the transition from one state of being to another and honors its glorious unfoldment. The arrangement of the cocoons within the circular shape represents unity and connection. The contrast in colors creates a center point on which to focus the mind. It is within the cocoon, in isolation and in silence, that the metamorphosis happens. This is true for the human mind as well. Similar to a mandala and its incredible potential to assist in the practice of meditation, the Birth of an Ideas series expands on this tool by incorporating nature into its structure. As such, the viewer enters and experiences the artwork, be it consciously or in a trance-like state, and is encouraged to pause and remember the healing power of stillness and silence that resides within each of us.
