Arts Thread

I focus on photography, not as we know it in the usual sense, that is a faithful record of reality. I am interested in photography rather from a chemical point of view - photography as drawing with light, as a light trail, reaction. I am interested in the materiality of the photographic medium, the light-sensitive layer, process, photography as a trace, experiment, latent image, aura or interventions, processes, and reactions. I deal with the relationship between existence and experiment or how an abstract image affects us and what happens during the creation process. I am interested in photography as a reaction to light. Photography is a dialogue between material and light. I take the photosensitive paper out of the protective packaging and let it react. The color tonality changes depending on the type of paper and the amount of light acting on it. I also expose the light-sensitive paper to the light from the scanner and create a fixed digital version at the same time. I combine two contradictory actions - initiating and stopping movement. Certain parts of the image are chemically developed and fixed, and certain parts are constantly changing. The photographic images are alive and still changing.

The project is about self-knowledge. I compare myself to photographic paper - I am the sensitive layer. I am a sensitive layer for which light is an external influence that sensitizes me, and chemical processes are reactions that work in me. I’m changing myself. I work in the darkroom because it takes time. The act of developing, during which I select individual images from the negative archive, set the values, do tests, develop and fix, and then hold the finished image in my hand, I metaphorically compare to the selection of thoughts from the archive of mind. I sensitize them, go through and process them again. I connect the developed and fixed with the ever-evolving. Internal with external. That, what is fixed in me with that, what is constantly changing, developing, and shifting. It’s a process.

I am searching for my disappearing passion. Passion for photography. I feel stuck somewhere and what was once a joy for me becomes "suffering" now. So I confronted myself with the camera and tried to find and renew our relationship.

My inspiration comes from the song by Björk - Army of Me. The text, the music, and the visual design stimulated the idea of creating my fictional beings. Using the collage technique, I combine fragments of fauna and flora with the human body and create mutants. I simulate a 3D image by creating an object inserted into the box. I achieve the illusion of depth perception by creating "peepshow boxes", where the viewer can see the creatures and examine them only by looking into the hole. At that moment there will be an encounter with my Army.

Spa - a place of rest, recreation, and treatment procedures. The first information, contact we get mainly through the skin at this place, through the mud wraps, immersion in healing waters, or through various treatments, etc... As the largest human organ, the skin has many functions, and I have compared skin sensitivity to the sensitivity of photo paper. I created a home spa and applied procedures to light-sensitive material. I placed materials of various states on light-sensitive paper and observed the transformations. The reactions and the whole process were very calming and acted to the mind (soul), more than the body. I continuously recorded the reactions. It was a bath of mind. The experience of the present moment was supported by the instability and constant development. The images, processes, and abstractions that were made are in the book. Through this book, the viewer can experience the visual bath of the mind.

A creature, goddess, woman, mother, planet, talisman, or ancient pocket pornography. Venus is a symbol of many forms. We have an idea about a Venus look from historical sources. We imagine her as a small statue or a woman in paintings. There are many forms of this being or visuals of the images we imagine under this word. Venus, which I created, resembled in size the Moravian Venus statue. The object consists of seven glass plates (8x10cm). I applied a photo emulsion on these plates and then exposed them. I used images of the planet Venus from NASA that surround the iconic image of Botticelli's Venus. The object is such a small "altar" to celebrate women. Woman is one big universe.

This project is about observing the world, especially the nature around Orava, region in the north of Slovakia, to which I am constantly returning and enjoying nature existence. This visits are one of the form of my contemplation. It is such as stop from the fast world, where I can be with myself, think, meditate and create. I was looking quiet and peaceful places, and photographed views I was interested in. I took pictures on large-format camera Graflex and medium-format camera Pentacon. I inserted paper into this cameras and exposed directly to the paper. There are a series of negatives that cannot be reproduce, as well as the moment we experience. I composed the negatives and created abstract-concrete images. (I also created negatives because we live in a time when being positive is not desirable.) The whole process, from the preparing a sensitive paper, searching, finding, exposing and then developing and experimenting, is for me a fascination leading to contemplation. Contemplation is very necessary nowadays and the environment in which I find myself, allows me to have these moments of meditation.