Time can operate very differently from one Marie Birkedal painting to another.

Some works consist of one or two extremely thin layers and are completed in a single day. Others accumulate hundreds of layers and remain active for more than a decade. These apparently opposite processes belong to the same practice.

Duration is not measured simply by the amount of labour visible on the surface. A painting made quickly can depend on years of accumulated knowledge and an exact decision made at a particular moment. A painting developed slowly can contain long intervals in which almost nothing happens physically.

Drying and waiting are therefore part of the work. A painting can remain untouched until its next move becomes clear. Returning to a work after months or years also changes what can be seen in it.

Birkedal’s background in literature contributes to this relationship with repetition and duration. She repeatedly reads the same books, allowing the same material to produce different meanings at different moments. The work of On Kawara is another important reference for thinking about recurrence, time and sustained attention.

Time in the paintings is therefore both physical and perceptual. It appears in layers, pauses, repetitions, returns and in the distance between one decision and the next.