Ana Ivanovska – Video Project | Tunnel – Archetype Pictures

Video Project

Opening reception:
Thursday, February 5th, 6pm – 9pm.

The Tunnel installation is an ambient audio- visual installation which imposes interactive and close communication with the observer, positioned with enough tendentiousness to entrap and transform the gallery space. The recipient is burst into a labyrinth of impressions created through the language of visualization.

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At the beginning, the spectator, even without his choice is entrapped in the tunnel and has no other way but to walk through it. He is involved into a visual sensations of my handwork (my minimalist constructions and handmade ropes), and then enters into a dark tunnel which is also curved and narrows down very slowly. Still the viewer can not see the exit but he only can see the fade light coming. And finally the viewer realizes that he is actually put in a uterus and his only exit is nothing but the red gate of a female genital organ. The tunnel is getting smaller and narrows down that only one man can exit the tunnel and blinded by the burst of light after coming out the tunnel just like in real life. The sound of heartbeats is making a stronger impression.
The tunnel as a symbol of a feminine nature represents a symbolic fertility, the uterus itself and a new rebirth. The curving moments and the transforming power of the tunnel, spreading and narrowing the space in which the spectator is entrapped is an counterpart to the feminine nature, unpredictable, cyclical, reliant, variable, intuitive. It’s constructed of emotions. It is an emotion of a kind. The discovery of the feminine nature is the real life power of the tunnel.
The work communicates through symbols and the close contact with the artwork, therefore encourages different experiences, interpretations and contemplation within the observer himself. The tunnel can be experienced like a rebirth on different levels, spiritual bases, rebirth through art, or a personal illumination of the already existing truths. It is an open question of the unknown: where do we come from and where are we going? That is, the far forgotten latent memory of the holy act of giving birth and the inevitable human fate, “the light behind the tunnel”. Yet, all of these remains open for the observer and his personal emotion and his perceiving of things.
In mythology, the Great goddess represents the absolute principle of fertility, life, death and regeneration in believes of all the ancient nations in the world. The subconscious longing for retreating to the womb, as well as the need to feel secure and protected, exist in the life of all people. The seed of fertility is being implanted in the tunnel. In this case, the spectator itself is the male principle.
In this project I’ve combined altogether many different media. That was a challenge to put together exhibition like this one, experimenting with different sorts of materials in searched for the most appropriate media for my idea. I’ve chosen the specific characteristics of the working material such as rope and the process of knitting because it is correlated to a feminine sensibility and traditional knitting. Although, the process of knitting, now is newly transformed through a structure assembling around a contemporary appearance.
This work of art is a form of symbolic expression with no attempt to articulate idea for anything else but rather representing an idea for an emotion.

TUNNEL – ARCHETYPE PICTURES

The idea of joining in the holy act of creating a new life, the holiness of the act of giving birth is the idea that connects these two projects (exhibitions). This time, upbringing to a higher, cosmic level, transcendental experience – a cosmic birth. Audio – visual performance which unites micro cosmos and macro cosmos, man and the great cosmos in the most uplifting act of creation, the genesis of the Universe. It reminds us of the interconnectedness and unity of all things, created with in common structure, of metaphysical principle of inseparable relationship of the part to the whole. It’s a video- installation containing three emphases: male and feminine principles, the tunnel (passage) a union (birth), each with its own symbolic in color.
The unity of opposites, of male and feminine principle is symbol of dualistic unity from which the whole life derives. Uniting provide us with release of personal identity, experiencing the space less, ocean feeling of nothingness and emptiness.
The language of the work of art is weaved through universal symbols. Through archetype – primordial pictures. Those are visual symbols of impressions that exist in our psyche for ages, analogue to the primitive ideas, myths and rituals which stimulating (stirring) the memory of why are we here, trip behind the illusion of the reality. The archetypes are sum of unconscious psychical contents of collective unconscious, symbols and images that always existed within all people and all nations of the planet, general predispositions. They are the invisible roots of all of our experiences and behaviors.

The labyrinth which I use in my work is also a significant symbol. The patterns of the labyrinth reveal the presence of a cosmic order. Psychological meaning of walking the labyrinth can be considered an initiation (enlightening), symbolic returning into mother’s womb, passing through death to rebirth, revealing the spiritual center through strenuously process of self-conscious that often leads nowhere.
The challenge is even bigger when working with different kinds of materials and combining them into spatial work. I like the idea of only one piece forming the complex whole. The perforation upgrades the feeling of release of the form. The power is in its repetition – from meaningless small to the vitality of the whole. Every new space is a challenge for its conquering. There is always a new situation derived from the light that is playing with the material, and the juxtaposition of the material in space.
Comprehending the phenomenon of the cyclic feminine nature, the cognition with myself and the influx of the impulsive and unpredictable, and still opposite emotions, spontaneously acquires this profile of creations. A work of art is a form of expression with no attempt to articulate idea for anything else, rather than representing an idea for an emotion.