Shift

Shift

multimedia installation (UV black-lights, strobe light, projector, acrylic on canvas ), 2012

The work ‘Shift’ was made as a result of the IAM (International Artist Moves) project which started as as a one-week workshop at the Academy of fine Arts in Zagreb, and was finalized as a part of exhibition Ostrale’12 in Dresden.

The work can be understood as a spatial installation, as well as a simulation chamber. The octagonal chamber consists of 46 paintings (100×100 cm; acrylic on canvas), UV black lights, UV sensitive acrylics and a strobe light.

The  main theme of the work is the circle of life and the ( infinite ) repetition of it – the cycle of birth, growth, expansion and death; creation and destruction; entropy and enthalpy.

‘Shift’ depicts a hybrid scenery, a combination of architectural elements of two cities – Zagreb and Dresden – which is based on a geopolitical and historical repetitive process  of war; on the reconstruction of the process of war and destruction, creation and destruction which reflected on the social structure and the collective memory  of their inhabitants, their values and perceptions, emotions, etc.

The whole ambient creates a so-called chamber that creates a collision of spatio-temporal elements. One one hand the work emphasizes and evokes the sense of being in the moment, existing in the present, which is achieved by the shift of light conditions – and on the other it annulates the notion of time as a linear phenomenon by creating a feeling of endless repetition; a type of repetition that brings us to a constant, inertia ( in therms of the psychological effect ).  As a result, we experience a convergence of different  spatio-temporal spaces and an exchange of two basic principles – in one case we are dealing with representation and illusion, and in other we are dealing with a visual simulation. By introducing these leaps through space and time, the viewer avoids the notion of the infinite present.

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