Keserü, Ilona: Collection (We have eaten lots of soft-boiled eggs) (1970)

„It is interesting that at that time when the Collection was made, almost everything became a ’work of art’, anything that I Iooked at or touched. The actual ’doing’ came first and then I tried to find a title to it. It was in the mid-sixties that I began to apply or paint found metal pieces onto the surface of the picture. Others did similar things, we saw each other’s works, we discussed them. The metamorhosis of sewing as an activity was a big step for me. I had been sewing for myself since my adolescence, I altered all kinds of cloths and I really liked this activity. Later, I felt guilty that I wasted time with sewing, taking time from painting. The big step forward was when I began to apply the fabrics and instruments of sewing together with those of painting, I saw ribbons, buttons, strings, pieces of felt and canvas onto the surface. I began this work in 1968, I embossed the canvas, and I worked with oil, chalk, graphit. I displayed these first sawn picture-reliefs that were important for me in Fényes Adolf Gallery, September, 1969. Since these embossed canvases were paintings in a way, they were received in a natural way. During the next couple of years, I added constructed, painted-clinched-mounted objects, spatial elments to them. I would not call them experiments, they were created as evident works, and only later did they receive their due place among the pictures. Often, the traces and remnants of existance, side-products of everyday errands offered themselves to become pictures, objects. Neither could these beautiful, perfect egg shells end in the trash, and with a little intervention, I had to create their apotheosis.” (Ilona Keserü