“The material makes its own demands, because the textile substratum for Lisa Bäck’s ‘velvet paintings’ requires considerable preparation. The image, which materializes in a time-consuming process, cannot be categorized. The area to be painted remains movable, as is the structure of the velvet with its fine nap. Etching is used to apply the first traces of the design to this surface. The colour painting process in many layers comes next. The watery dyes have fast flow characteristics that can only be partially controlled, but they permeate the silk velvet and produce a strong colour. ‘It is not really controllable,’ Bäck says of the arbitrary behaviour of her materials; however after more than 20 years, she can now largely predict this behaviour. Finally the dyes are fixed in the piece using a steaming process in a special cylindrical container, and the work is then protected and rolled up in layers of paper. Only then does the full depth of the work come into its own.”

Verena Kienast, art magazine „morgen“ 4/2014 „Apell an die Sinne“