Affliction of mortality
Video-Performance
Affliction of mortality is an elegy of the intangible. As well as the transformation - from within. Although it might sound poetic, this is a philosophical chronicle of existence with its limitation of transient and mortal matter. A matter which confines spirit, will, and instinct.
Containing a strong surrealistic element, this performative artwork is an attempt to blend the fictional and factual. The scene fluctuates between the familiar, ordinary, and the uncanny. The body is a main subject - as a consequence of the psychological metamorphosis, its peculiar presence, evokes mysterious notion of physical transformation.
The matter of ancient fundamental question is always the same - whether the desired will be a gift or a burden. The pilgrimage, the journey towards knowledge and wisdom, trough mind and matter, is awlays in solitude.
'The Crow is considered a totem animal since ancient times. Most ancient cultures accepted that the crow was the harbinger which could guide human souls to the afterlife. It is believed that a crow is the keeper of the Sacred Law and divination.
Today it is believed that the Crow symbolizes a new phase in someone’s life. A crow that appears in your life indicates for you to think more thoroughly about life.
It is usually believed that the crow is a symbol of bad luck and death, but it may be also a symbol of life magic and mysteries. It symbolises also ancient wisdom and destiny. If a crow appears in your life, it means also a personal transformation.
In some traditions it has been used as a spirit animal of choice and was used by people who wanted to control the universe. As a magic bird it has always been a part of many ritual all over the world.'
This performance has been created with the use of body, space, natural landscape, green screen, costume design. It might be considered multidisciplinary work. Its visual language fluctuates between gesture, movement, atmosheric features , distinction of sites. Most of the filming was made in an exterior of natural environment during an obscure, rainy day, which was not planned, but initially desired. The exposure of the body in such conditions is another attempt to challenge the reactions, moods, behaviour transitions, to reinforce authentic and genuine
record. Its presentatio as a video enabled the achievment of embodyment and the presence/absece idea I was trying to imply.
Rebeca Horn
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The main theme in the work of the German artist Rebeca Horn is the contact of the person with his/her environment which she often expresses attaching objects and instruments to the human body in Performances and Body-sculptures. The modification of the body in Einhorn (Unicorn) is achieved by a body-suit with a large horn projecting vertically from the head. In the White body fan she constructs large semi-circular sheets of fabric strengthened and supported by spokes of metal and wood, which remind large wings in a movement operated by the wave of the arms.
I am fascinated by her originality and the way her work look somehow timeless. The stylization, the geometric shapes, the uncanny amalgamation between those alien-animal looks and the pure natural landscape make her pieces look contemporary. The style of the costumes brings sense of firmness, strength, evoke a weird anticipation of attack, and in contrast with the fragility and vulnerability revealed by her naked body, they form a symbiosis, encoded with different messages.
Agnes Nedregård
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The Norwegian artist Agnes Nedregad came to my attention with the extraordinary and extravagant style and approach in her Performance work. 'She places the experience of being a human body at the centre of the work, charging her presence in the world with physical energy, psychological images, actions and symbols. '
With the use of costumes, props, setting the figure in an unusual environment, she explores the body, the presence, the conditions in which it is disturbed and confronted. Often challenging the normal state of the body placement or the gravity, she explores how the 'personal luggage informs our interpretations of situations, places and people'.
Exile
Oil on Canvas
/150x100/
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The performance Affliction of mortality is to some extent inspired by this painting. Even though I started it intuitively, following a dream-like vision, it led to a research about the crow and its strong symbolistic implications. The crow has been a subject of interest to me for a long time.
The idea to transform a painting into performance increased with the time and the real experience of performing actually revealed more of the signified overlayered narrative of the theme.