You Never Look at Me from the Place from Which I See You2022
"I see only from one point, but in my existence, I am seen from everywhere." (Jacques Lacan) In this series of photographs I employ mythological, psychoanalytic and philosophical readings of the concept of Das Unheimliche (the uncanny) as a starting point for visual reinterpretation. One of the foundational contexts for this concept emerges within Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic discourse. Freud directly linked Das Unheimliche to what he called primitive animistic thinking, and the role of nature undeniably constitutes an important foundation for this work: nature speaks through elements it unmistakably possesses, chosen as signs of a hermetic language. The work addresses the gaze in the context of the impossibility of complete and credible insight into how someone or something gazes or is being gazed at, as well as the question: who or what can see? Given the established relationship between the landscape space and the subject, the landscape is treated as subjectivity in itself – it almost becomes a Nietzschean abyss that returns the gaze and engages in a mute interaction with the human figure. The appearance of the doppelgangers in the second part of this photographic series questions the assumed distinction between the original and the copy, establishing a new layer of strangeness. There is uncertainty about which of the two figures is the first and authentic one, and whether such a division into the first and (non-belonging, foreign, and strange) second is even possible. Since the author chooses to photograph her own figure, the photographs partially unveil something that is both known and foreign to her: a gaze upon oneself. II |
The Waste Land2023 - Society and culture are intertwined in the broadest sense. In the context of my work, this involves exploring society through the investigation of places and objects that bear visible traces of numerous inscriptions from different historical periods. Human activity within a specific territory is fundamentally an endeavor that seeks to reshape nature and is open to contemplation on how the natural landscape has gradually transformed into a cultural landscape, as well as how a single location contains a multitude of culturally diverse inscriptions. As I traverse the landscapes of Vojvodina, I encounter the motif of the wasteland everywhere; the kind composed of remnants from the past that are gradually being buried, neglected, or transformed. Vojvodina is a region that still contains residues of diverse traditional heritage, traceable back for centuries and preserved in folklore tales and historical objects specific to this region. However, this legacy is now being reinterpreted in new ways within contemporary cultural currents, thus undergoing changes. My research is focused on landscapes that encompass historical buildings or sites of Vojvodina’s cultural heritage — places that once served economic, social, or religious purposes in the past, and that, in the contemporary moment, mostly lack practical or spiritual significance. They are depicted in the barren landscapes and abandoned objects, enduring as silent witnesses or practical bearers of information about the region's history. |