The Path of the Sun

The Sun is essential for our existence, it’s the focus of scientific studies and a powerful source of artistic inspiration. It has consistently appeared in visual art, clearly symbolized in ancient mythological works, and it keeps reappearing in contemporary art. But why is this? Because it is an inevitable part of our lives: it marks the passage of time and impacts everything around us— our health, our diet, and nature itself.

In her latest series, Kamilla Szíj follows the path of the Sun, aiming to capture the presence of sunlight by recording the forms it creates on paper. These drawings, created between April and October of 2024, are on display in the current exhibition. Szíj has transformed a phenomenon observed in her own home—the early morning light patches that appear during the sunny months— into the subject of her art. The light, filtered through her blinds, paints her room, which serves as both her living space and studio, with oval shapes.

Szíj’s drawings are always realized according to a preconceived structure. This process requires intense concentration and involves constructing an artwork from repeated shapes that form a complete composition on paper. Following previous series utilizing motifs of rice grains and tin cans, her latest series centers around an oval line that serves as the base unit of each drawing.

While some of Szíj’s drawings are created following strict, predetermined rules, in this series, she decided only to follow the Sun’s path. She let nature to decide which mornings brought particular light patterns through her window and what shapes the Sun would cast for her to work with. Since she could not predict how much time she would have for drawing each day, she allowed more room for improvisation. She did not decide in advance on the number of rows in each column, nor did she plan exactly when she would switch drawing tools. This approach gave the series an experimental feel, quality of the series, reflected in the variety of paper materials and sizes, the color and softness of the pencils, and the rotated and layered drawings across different days. Each work’s timeframe was recorded on the back of each sheet as documentation.

Can a moment be captured, or sunlight preserved in its present state? Szíj’s conclusion suggests it may not be fully possible. As the video displayed in the exhibition shows, within the 1-2 seconds it took her to trace an oval, the light had already shifted. These light patches remain in constant motion, making them only fragmentarily capturable.

Boglárka Tóth