PAPER REMINISCENCES OR THE BUDDING OF THE PULP
In his artistic practice Burhan Hadžiavljevic has always tended to transgress the field of classical painting, his main preoccupation.
No matter whether he would move toward sculpture, namely its painted relief, installation or site specific situations, the image has always had a predominant role.
Among all the solutions inferred in the painted area, the structure of the surface was and still is his focal point. Intensive colours are applied on the relief raised materials, both traditional and experimental.
The colours saturated surface is in balance with the emphasized matter, even in the case of classical oil on canvas.
In his Grožnjan show the artist remains faithful to his original interests, with the only difference that this time he paints with – paper.
The Thai tradition of handmade paper was used by Hadžialjevic as a welcome move towards some totally new creative experiences. In the soup of paper pulp before it gets dry Burhan placed multicoloured paper segments (strings, bundles, tiny and plain surfaces of handmade paper...), which after drying become an integral part of the surfaces. The author refers to such works as monotypes, though they can remind us of the fresco painting where the time of creative intervention is limited by the time needed for the background to dry.
Regardless of the technology of production, the results are seen as the convergence of technics such as painting, collage, relief, ready-made, and even drawing.
The aesthetic effects arise from the blend of geometrical abstraction and tashism reminding us of the authors such as, Miro, Klee, Kline, Smithson or Fontana, but with additional universal, archetypal decorative schemes made by polychromatic multicoloured triangles.
The symmetry of Burhan's paintings, their visual balance and colouristic harmony, the marked tangibility of the surfaces emphasized by colour and the neutral background, give a significant poetic contribution both to the Istrian and Croatian artistic situation at the beginning of this century.
Berislav Valušek 2008