Beyond...
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Performance/Installation
This project is a result of a few transformations, variations, metamorphosis. Starting point was the idea of imprisonment, which might be physical, as well as psychological, and often they are interrelated. Considering symbolical message of a closed, but inhabited space, I experimented with variety of functions and approaches investigating how to manipulate that space , in order to make it like a maze, confusing, limiting, but flexible and floating at the same time. Involving again the central
notion of Dualism in its boundaries, I used mirrors, but joint with and angle, to achieve multiplying of the reflection. The set constructed by wood, fabric and mirrors, transformed the space into a private room, chamber, 'cage' of self-examination, where performer, or visitor spent enough time might really 'lose' or eventually 'find' himself. The 'cage' is closed with a transparent piece of fabric, reinforcing the illusion of that ambiguous state or position, whether we are trapped, whether we believe it is open or not, and whether we will manage to escape if we try. Andd once 'trapped', it is appealing to raise questions like ' Do we stare at our reflections at the mirror with pleasure, with shame, with fear? It is strictly individual, but provoked to explore his reactions, an individual might reveal new translation, or more stable knowledge about his nature and about the control he imposes. Therefore, I am trying to play with the movement, as a matter of constantly changing, reviving transitions, and emphasize on the perception, that after all this idea about impulse against control is in our mind and it only depends on us to face it or hide it, to challenge it and subject it.
The performer wears a costume reminiscent of the manipulative interior of the Installation. Correlation between the space he appears to be trapped in, which is actually part of him, part of his struggles, longings, conflicts. Once getting into the 'cage' he is all alone there. Costume is 'taken of', this is the moment of realising that you 'wear' those contradictions instinctively, no matter , how much rational order commands. The performance is accompanied by sound, text with background music. The text is an abstract interpretation of accumulated thoughts, dreams, analysis.
Impasse...
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Impasse is a project consists of performance, installation, and sound. A 'playground' made by thick, free flowing ropes turns into an acting space, simulating imprisonment of constantly transforming environment. Created and filmed for the collective exhibition Hollow Chambers in the Crypt gallery, this piece was inspired by the exhibition's theme - caves in different perspectives.
Appealing and scary places, full of secrets and danger, caves through my interpretations become a metaphor of never fully explored space – physical or psychological - always hiding something ‘more’, something unrevealed in its depths and its distinctive visual and informative characteristics create the idea of atmosphere impregnated with confusion, disorder, impasse... A place in the Earth’s bowels or a ‘casket of secrets’ in your mind, a strange symbiosis between the concept of escapism or that of a trap, where facing the unknown requires adaptation and completely excludes fearfulness. Disrupting our perceptions of being preoccupied with established motives, prejudices, ‘rehearsed’ models of behaviour.
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Video installation of performance
Through the prism of my practice, such an adventure corresponds with the deep layers of the mind, where sometimes you have to be disconnected to the visible world in order to discover the inner nature of your personality , listen to your senses and inner voice, to acknowledge the essence of your true strengths and weaknesses, and find 'the right' way. 'The cage' symbolizes an illusion we often tend to create imaginary and put our own boundaries of what we can discover, achieve, or escape from. And how easy it seems - to behave the same limited way when we are 'free', as when we are really 'imprisoned'...
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The performer is blindfold. He/she relies on the movement of the body - his/her gestures and intuition are the single ‘compass’ in the darkness. follows the rhythm of a voiceover which echoes as thoughts of those his/her doubts and contradictions. The 'mission' of the sound is to reinforce dramatism. As speech is transformed in a song, its role is not to pass the meaning of the words through their descriptive definition, but through the emotion, voice fluctuation and intonation captured in them; to represent vibration exalt the expression.
The sound was recorded in the Sound Record Studio. Part of the video filmed in the Green Screen Studio. The text was written for the project, investigating the consequences of going back to the same thought or emotional state in a duration of time, which always changes the perception. Initially planned as alive performance, the project turned into video installation, which facilitated its presentation and enabled the reinforcement of the idea with some effects added.
Beyond.../Developing project/
Work in process
Model /1:10/, Wood, tracing paper, lights, mirrors
​This work is considered next stage of the project 'Beyond...' The experiment in a small scale model led to the construction of cubic space set installation, planned as a performance stage for one or multiple performers. The shape of the interior is achieved by folded paper, similarly to the way origami are fold, demonstrating ho some object, two dimensional in this case, could be manipulated and transform into three dimensional -absolutely changing the space, the depth, the perceptions. The way we manually transform objects like those small pieces of paper, we can manipulate the imagination, the illusion, the choice, or let the surroundings manipulate and direct us. Use of mirrors reinforce the sense of depth, of eternal 'tunnel' of rambling, more and more intricate, confusing, and at the same time captivating. Next step of construction is choice of materials, experimental process in a larger scale, choreographing the performance.
The body
An experimental process which was a corner-stone in the development of the visual language I wanted to investigate. The body is inseparable part of the personality. Its movement is often a reaction of the processes happening inside of it. The experiment observed a body put in different exaggerated stable positions, aiming to disable the speech and make a record of this impossibility.
The study consists of series of shortly performed transformations of ‘stabilized’ movement. Different parts of the body suspended, or ‘forced’ to stand in unusual positions. A body placed in a condition of limits - limits concerning the physical capabilities of its movement, in conversation with its psychological state. The experiment constructed an interesting issue - the body, deprived of its freedom to move, paradoxically simulates a position which could easily perform when the movement is released.
It raised the question whether we find those limits around us or put them ourselves.
This painting is still in process, but it is significant to me as a break-through in my practice. I am still searching for the right signals and innovative methods to build a concept through painting, but developing my technique is also crucial evaluating matter. Leaving the drawing visible and fields of the surface unfinished is an intentional approach, which reinforces the expression and awakens curiosity. Both composition and technique are more abstract than in my previous style. Contrast between neutral ground and intensive colour itself supports visually the dualistic features I am investigating. As a theme, that dualistic confusion is literal and easy to translate in the ‘interweaving’ of two silhouettes – allusion of the same women, but diverse in the sense of perception. The playful smile, half shy, half signalizing covered provocation. Yet, the female does not reveal any sign of dramatism, which I want to deliver more as suspicion and intuitive anticipation, but the sense of something haunting among those blur outlines behind remains.
