Point of Initiation
Point of Initiation is my interactive conceptual installation photography work from The Making of Reality Collection, exhibited at the Fine Arts Association of Serbia (ULUS) exhibition that took place in Cvijeta Zuzoric Art Pavillion in 2013.
Initially, this artwork started by capturing an image with my favourite Rolleiflex Tessar 3.5 camera, using a ten-year-old outdated 120 colour slide film that was chemically imbalanced. It was shot on a beautiful sand beach of Pescia Romana in Italy, on a summer day in 2012. I developed it using a cross-process as colour negative which created this deep red tone.
After experimenting with image repetition, I decided to produce this final piece by repeating the image four times in different positions. I wanted to create an emphasized sense of motion and metaphorically present the concept of the possibility of taking different possible paths in life.
Finally, it was produced as a large scale (160x160cm) inkjet print that is fixed to plywood, pierced in the middle where the old recycled bicycle lever is seen in the front and the reconstructed bicycle mechanism in the back. This enabled my final piece to be interactive and to allow the viewer to turn the lever and therefore initiate the artwork to rotate.
ART REVIEW: THE MAKING OF REALITY
Ana Miladinovic, Point of Initiation, a conceptual interactive installation, 2012.
Really, what is reality? Firmly established scheme of given patterns, a random set of circumstances, or a personal experience shaped by the ability of a mind to interpret what is seen at its own discretion? Can reality be created by awareness of the mind to interpret the facts in a manner that complies with the emotions and associations of the observer?
Artist Ana Miladinovic believes that reality is always personalized in the context of our individual experience and that its objective structure and form, can be recognized by the integration of various aspects of observed or experienced into a single unit. In her new cycle, called “The Making of reality”, Ana Miladinovic penetrates the internal structure of things and beings by experimenting with materials, techniques and methods of presentation of work of art. “Point of Initiation” represents a typical example of combining the narrative concept with experimental techniques and production mechanisms, aiming to assimilate work of art as a reflex of the original artistic idea and its direct communication with an observer, to create a new, personalized reality.
By narrating on two friends, who, by deciding to go on a journey into the unknown, trigger physical, mental and spiritual energy, the artist represents actors of her story just with their bare feet on the shore, splashed by an unknown sea.
An image created using the combined technique, where a ten-year-old slide is first chemically imbalanced, and then developed as a colour negative, gives the deep red tone that suggests strong emotion of the passengers who are determined to create their own reality. The same image is repeated four times in different positions within the print that is printed by archival inkjet and fixed on plywood. This produced a composition that directly suggests movement and possible directions of motion. The lever that is placed in the centre allows the viewer to move the artwork, so the individual experience becomes complete, and the word initiation from the title of the work – an interactive process.
Research curiosity that leads into a complex creative experiment, as well as the ability to implement a subtle form of communication using unconventional production techniques, gives the artistic statement of Ana Miladinovic a particular power of attraction. It is the art that tends to initiate the viewer into a co-author of the process of creating reality – Art of exciting, liberating synergy.
Tamara Ognjević
art historian
