new york diptychs

Mixed media collages on hollow core doors,
New York, 1999

This series is based on the "Tribal Manhattan" collages. The nature of the materials used - about forty different kind of fabrics, acrylic paint and glitter - lends a solid feeling to its forms. Two hollow core doors are placed next to each other, forming a single panel. The back side of the panel holds yet another collage, encouraging the viewer to walk around the painting. Over the course of eight months, Nicolala gradually added layer upon layer, building up a grid of vertically cut and glued strips of paint, glitter and fabric, creating the illusion of a street in an urban canyon, like a kind of souped-up Mondrian.

At eye level are spirit/animal/human-like pedestrians. These individuals are sacred souls who walk the streets, meshing with the grotesqueness of the city. The huge variety of people in New York gave her the vision of a world family. On a daily basis, one sees one's life pass by in less then a second, this becoming an almost unconscious experience due to continuous motion. She experienced living in New York as a constant rebirth, nothing ever remaining the same, nothing as it appeared to be.