Proposal Abstract

Artist’s books Interspace (relations of reciprocity), Conversations over coffee, Faces or Frontiers reassess the idea of portrait, employing drawings of photographs to reflect the concepts of relationality and intersubjectivity and explore the delicate, multidimensional paths of interpersonal communications. The book Interspace uses the photographs of extended hands, as reflections of multiple forms and needs for communication. Images are taken separately, experiencing the moments of interaction, interweaving or discrepancies solely in the void of virtual spaces of photographic treatment. Individual, more or less successful attempts of interactions, surmounting the emptiness stand as metaphors of fragility, vulnerability and strength at the same time, of mutual relationships and the interspace of encounters. The books Faces and Frontiers instead of hands intertwine individual portraits, weather via digital photo manipulation or layering pencil drawings on translucent Japanese paper. The works reflect the processes re/constructions of identity – constructed and developed in relation to others. The narrative line continues with the works Conversations over coffee and audio-visual installation Relations of reciprocity reflecting on variable feministic realities of several generations of women in my family. The installation consists of a series of sixteen portrait images that would be rather difficult to categorize precisely, works on paper incorporating printed and drawing elements – digital prints layered with dense drawing interventions complemented with edited audio material based on fragments of conversations of six project participants discussing different life circumstances, personal experiences and/or challenges. The installation questions the notion of identity as stable and fixed category, presenting portraits as vague, multidimensional and ever incomplete images, emphasizing the impact of wider socio-economic frame on the individual opportunities and possibilities of self-realization. The book develops the same concept and transforms it through another medium; contrasting individual portraits with short statements extracted from the audio material.