On Tuesday, I will be opening my 6th solo exhibition. I will be exhibiting drawings from my "Wonderland" series.
I have prepared the drawings for this exhibition during the last summer , based on the photographs by my friend, Piki made during this photo session for my Alice costume and I am so happy to be able to show off them in Belgrade's main street, in the "Singidunum" gallery. If you live in Belgrade, it would be lovely if you can join us on the opening. The exhibition will have 10 days duration.
Here's something more about the drawings:
Works from the series "Wonderland" are inspired by the famous novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), written by the English writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll.
Drawings "Wonderland" are made during the 2010. and are done in a combined technique: charcoal, ink, tempera, collage on paper, fabric, thread and are approx. 100 x 70 cm in size.
Drawings have the figure as the light-theme, which dominates the composition, while pulling on them unobtrusive forms of ill-defined space, a certain animal silhouettes, cage, cards, teapots and cups. The figure is mainly created in the traditional method of charcoal on paper and it is almost realistic in treatment, which comes in contrast with the surrounding, which is usually unrealistic, and sometimes even extremely simple and almost two-dimensional. In addition to get the Wonderland components altogether and to integrate the prevalent ideas from the novel, some parts of the drawings are children's drawings (for example, some cards and plates) which makes the connection between inspiration, themes, audiences, the unreal with real world, and in a way achieves the combination of two worlds that are very evident in the novel. Just as Carroll's "Wonderland" which is not another world, but just this world, seen through the eyes of the child, my "Wonderland" is created using some kind of children's views of things. Therefore some shapes and pieces are original children drawings, spontaneously embedded with other materials, different textures and parts, stitched/sewn elements, all with the aim of enriching the visual composition through the essential aesthetic elements: the different values of lines, surfaces and structures.
The idea of growing up through the play and usage of imagination as essential in understanding the adult world, as well as reviewing our own identity in constant contact with other creatures and people are shown here in some way under the theme "tea party", which is interpreted through the transition from one dimension to another and from one world to another, as well through an innocent "child's play" with the different objects and in mimicking habits, rules, and generally, the adult’s world.
With the interpretation of the idea of captivity in another world, somewhere
between reality and dream, and with a note of nostalgia, these “Wonderland” drawings were created.
Hope to see you there,
Katarina
