My art has always dealt with notions of space, especially with the relation of spaces to images. Earlier I was fascinated with modelling of space – cartographic and cosmological models as abstractions of physical reality. The perspective of my recent works, video installations, is rather based, physically and reflectively, on how we experience space. On one hand, the theme of the works grew from a need to contemplate the concept of image-semblance* of space. On the other hand, these works deal with the issue of presence vs. absence, both as a spatial concern and as a question of confronting the other. Some of the installations literally shift the gaze from the artwork towards the spectator himself as he enters the “stage”.
* Image-semblance. By this I mean the image-like characteristics of spatial experience in a phenomenological sense. In this context, I understand images as entities for representing something that is not physically present. At the same time, images have the ability of bringing their referent mentally present. While an image can be thought of as “a window to an outside reality” (i.e. representation of something non-present), according to my point the phenomenon of indexicality is concerning spaces as well. In this case, space is considered in phenomenological terms; spatial experience is derived in a growing extent from images. Memories associated with space are no longer solely constructed through actual and physical presence but increasingly through memory devises, e.g. photographs and films – particularly from other sources than the first hand personal experience. While cartographic images and models serve intentionally as devices for outlining space, second-hand representational imagery “unintentionally” constructs the spatial memory, and in addition provides perspectives for spatial apprehension even before one’s own first hand experience.
Spatial image-likeness is further enforced with quotidian technology such as cars and trains. The sensation of space experienced from a moving vehicle resembles the situation in a movie theatre where the physical space is psychologically displaced by an imaginary one. In a train or a car, the traveling spectator is not himself moving in the space. Instead, the movement and the perceived space are framed through a window and separated from the passenger’s immediate surroundings.
With the concept of image-semblance or the characteristics of image-like I want to underline the shift in the nature in apprehending space.
Read more in my article: Space,place,presence.pdf
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