SANJA%20

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SANJA ŽDRNJA PRESENTATION OF WORKS




PRESENTATION OF WORKS
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• Workshop 2D Mutant Zombies-(Low-Key Low-Tech
  Identity Mapping Workshop)
• Workshop explores the issues of identity and its
  cultural instrumentalization.From the sixties to
  the recent new-media, cyber, gender and hybrid
  theories. The identity, as the specific theme of
  the Western art, has become the universal
  paradigm for the contextualization of art and
  turned into a cultural fetish.
• Workshop utilizes a low-key morphing method that
  is considered low-tech in the digital domain
  where it has been used for more than 15
  years.Morphing is a digital animation technique
  for transformations between two images.It is
  realized through algorithms for warping and
  blending of pixels according to the given
  reference points or structural lines.The face is
  the key identity map and here is used for the
  purpose of pixel-level experimentation.
• The process of work was first photograph pairs
  of portraits on the location, morph them and
  select one intermediary frame, print and exhibit
  as a life-size photograph.The result is a static
  bastard-image created within the animation
  process.Unlike the classical approach of Nancy
  Burson, the pioneer of morphing whose elegant
  portraits conceal the technique, here is
  different, we practiced freestyle morphing with
  equal use of digital limitations and tricks in
  order to make visually exciting and provocative
  works.
• The artist is a primarily in the role of
  manipulator, paradoxically renders hybrid
  portraits with clear qualities of personality
  and character, open for identification and any
  other relation which open the space for the game
  and thinking.

1. morf
2. morf
final morf
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Photomontage On the edge I made this print
for my final exhibition at the faculty of fine
arts ( in Belgrade ).I spent five years of my
life there.I worked there and listened the
stories about earlier generations and who become
the famous art star, etc.I know the building from
different sides, outdoor, indoor, simpliest,
every angle of every room.It was my so called
secon home that is the reason I choose precisely
that building.The arhitecture without decoration
was for me inspiration and I put the line ( with
human body ), I called it Mejbriges line, on
the edge of the roof.First, for the tests I
choose Mejbrige photo when he shot the man who
stand on the hands.But his photos from book is
not so clear and good for manipulation and so, I
find model to make photos.Here I duplicate and
got the lineof strong, young men, stand upside
down on the hands, larger than average size,
human size.This work have references to the work
of for example Leni Rifenshtal or Rodschenko, it
is look like it belong to the past time, so it is
the same with my situation, for me the memories
belong to the past.Also, the line look like on
young new generations, in the same time, they are
young, they could compete among themselves.Who is
the original and who is the copy ( in big print
we do not know but in postcard ) I discover. I
use postcards only for good memory and also for
my own art marketing.
foto-instalation On the edge , 2006
postcard on the edge
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Seria of photos Miror I made in 2005. I made
in space of contemporary museum in Salzburg. I
find silver, aluminium suface and I used my
reflection in it. I find oneself like funny
figure with new form of the body and also with
halo above my head. Changes of my apperance and
see oneself in different view. Its almost like
game with funny mirror and my experience in that
position.
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Overlaped photos ( two photos one is
autoportrait and the other is laying figure in
the salt ) the title is Memento mori (
hand-made black and white photograph size
2x1,7m) the thinking about material salt in
the sense of christianity ( in Bibles sentence
You are the salt for the ground ) and
recollection of our death and the sense of our
existence in this life and the nature of our
souls in the other hand, reference with the
whole cause ( with the chemistry ) in black and
white laboratory.
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Patterns for my white shirts Digital photos
of autoportraits first, I multiplied and made
them in very small size, so, nobody can recognize
the face and I used it to make print for ( the
way I called this work ) my white shirt. The
pattern is the square. I photograph myself with
the cosmetic mask on my face, like, everyday
ritual in womens life. And, the other part of
the concept is that I choose, for the object,
shirt- for me that is,definitely, male symbol (
and shirts for female are the second version of
the first one).Put that white canvas ( with the
print on it ) on my body, I do, again, one more
ritual of cleaning, this time, cleaning from that
symbolical meaning.



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PHOTO-INSTALATIONBAD/WHITE ,SOLO-EXIBITION,
GALLERY ALKATRAZ, SALZBURG, SUMMER ACADEMY,
2005. PHOTOGRAPHY CLASS OF KATHARINA
SIEVERDING I created photo-instalation for the
very small room or gallery( in the old salt
factory in Salzburg ).At first I collect lot of
trash photos from my dark room where my friends
and I develop the black and white photos.Very
often people do something wrong with the light
and exposure and get bad results.Thus I found
that these pictures have some sence for me. They
are new works even they are bad photos in a view
of professional photographer.I collect pieces
black and white, black or almost really white
photos.Some of wet photos I put on the sun light
and I get gold or bronze colour on photo-papier.I
choose to use my intuition and hang them on the
wall and make big photo-wallpapier.I put in my
work all experiences and events and hopes, etc
from the other people, my friends.That emocional
attitude was important for me and have impact on
me.I use chair instead of the ladder, scissors,
tape and on the end of the action I decide to
leave everything like it is, on the flour.I add
only light, slid-projector light and put the
projector under the chair.So, when you want to
come inside, first you are blinded with the light
and you dont see anything.When you are approach
you see photo-wallpapier and details, some
pictures and the parts of the photos.Whole new
big photo on the wall look like on enformel
painthing with lot of layers. The title speaks us
how the light could be in a position of creator.
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Corridor final wall The title of this work, video
installation is Corridor Final wall.First I
created the space, six meters corridor and
present that video in the space.I choose hidden
space in building, so you can go and in one
moment you will find or discover the space.The
corridor can be see only from the inner side.I
put projection on the final wall of that
corridor.That is the man of hidden identity cos
it can be female and male and also model whowalk
and do not show the front side of appearance.We
only can see him or her from the back.Story
about lonliness of existence.This figure exists
and live here ( in that space ), like for
example, very rare animal sort-human fish, live
on the space of Slovenia, in Postoina cave.I show
the video all the time in gallery space, put in
loop-the video is about 30 min.So, it is like 2D
sculpture.She or he walks and does it very
sophisticated.She walks, sits, makes some
different positions with the body, but very
slowly.The sound of breathing, first one when
she/he stands and when she/he walks, then we can
hear sound of few breathing.First we see one
figure then four.
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GENTLE SPINE, 2006.
GENTLE SPINE
GENTLE SPINE
GENTLE SPINE , 2006. ( exhibit on
the solo-exhibition Playing instrumentsobjects
in the empty room )
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TAKE A BASS BREATH , 2007. ( exhibit on the
solo-exhibition Playing instrumentsobjects in
the empty room )



TAKE A BASS BREATH , 2007. (
exhibit on the solo-exhibition Playing
instrumentsobjects in the empty room )
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PLAYING PIANO IN THE EMPTY ROOM , 2007. (
exhibit on the solo-exhibition Playing
instrumentsobjects in the empty room )
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GIFT I , 2007.
( exhibit on the solo-exhibition Playing
instrumentsobjects in the empty room )
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( exhibit on the solo-exhibition Playing
instrumentsobjects in the empty room )
GIFT II , 2007.
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Tear
objects Series of sculptures, that I called them
Tear objects consist of seven shapes in polish
aluminium.I got it from my face-I got prints from
my face choose surfaces which fluid form follow
the form of my face.These elipsas forms are
polish with the purpose to get reflection quality
and stand exibit in the space.But, I back them on
the place of birth in the line of
autoportraits-photographs with the objects.On
this way, the sculpture becomes anecessary,
organic decoration to the natural appearance.To
emphasize metal quality of everyday object on
these photographs, my portrait get increase
shining.Also, the form of the hair correspond to
these aluminium shapes.Through this work, I
research connection between presentation and
performance of my own identity and its appearance.
( exhibit on the solo-exhibition Playing
instrumentsobjects in the empty room )
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00 empty room, body, three male and two female
instruments 01In the book Body art- performing
the subject Amelia Jones states that body art in
particular confirms the premises of the
phenomenology and psychoanalysis, that the
subjects relations to the others adds to its
meaning, and that the locus of identity is always
elsewhere. The Empty room is an important step
with which Sanja establishes the logic of
building intimate atmosphere and the condition to
articulate the embodied inter-subjectivity,
characteristic of the performance art (Hannah
Wilke). This intervention of the authoress opened
the possibility to represent personal, erotic
fantasy of another body, outside of the wider
social context. Just like Wilke in the seventies
and the eighties, Sanja treats her body as a
sculptural form. However, even though they are
equally sensual, her works cannot be considered
destructive. She tries to reexamine the questions
of sexuality, femininity or feminism, only if we
agree that she offers quite a different focus.
Her performance has no direct ambition to
emancipate, but it suggests the state of intimate
harmony. Sanjas body, entwined in an erotic
act, does not figure just as its own image its
her entire being faced with an attempt of
reproduction, desire or appropriation of the
other as an object or a subject of pleasure.
Isolating herself in an empty room, the authoress
is trying to take a position opposed to the lack
in the Other, of the Symbolic order, desire and
jouissance of the Other, and uses fantasy as a
relatively stable means of defense. A similar
erotic relation which gives figurativeness to the
body can be seen in Marcel Duchamp, whose alter
ego Rose Cest la vie has a function of denying
the lack. The Other is here embodied in the
instruments of various sizes and it represents
two principles male and female. Sanja does not
only offer her own body as an object, she also
points out the resonance created in the encounter
with the male (Gentle Spine, Take a Bass Breath,
Gift), and left out in the relation with the
female instruments (Playing Piano in the Empty
Room, Tear Objects). Fantasy could be explained
with the mirror phase which, in an essay
displayed for the first time at the
Psychoanalysts Congress in Zurich in 1949, Lakan
explained as identification or transformation
which constructs the ego, taking the images of
others (imago) If we interpret the more recent
works of Sanja Ždrnja as an imaginary
identification of the mirror phase, they enable
us to see the Ego in its primordial form, in the
time before its function as the subject in
language. As the male instruments, such as the
one following the line of the authoresses spine
(Gentle Spine), or a smaller instrument shaped
after her fingers, in the place of subjects in
genesis, there are no visible signs of separation
between them. The male instruments are the
projection of the Ego inscribed into the
imaginary register, and in unison with Sanjas
body, they realize the harmony of imaginary
identification. Their relation can also be
interpreted like a pre-oedipal stadium, as a
natural state in which the need for closeness and
compassion is realized. They have the function of
balancing the authoresses libido and they
represent the identification point of the
foundation of her subject, with the aim to make
it coherent and closer to Ideal Ego. While the
male instruments are in unison with the
authoresses body and they make the resonance
possible, the female instruments are breath
stopping. The imprint of the authoresses body in
Playing Piano in the Empty Roomor the imprints
of her face in Tear Objects, point out the
insufficiency of female body and the
indispensable presence of the male subject whose
effect it would be. It would seem that Ždrnja
knows that the subject, as seen by Lakan, does
not exist apart from the constant flow of
meaning, but only as a single event in an
unending flux, and that its particularities do
not originate from the strengths, attitudes and
dispositions the individual possesses in various
situations, but from the marking process whose
part they make. Ždrnja uses photography, as a
medium which enables her to freeze the relation
of her body and the instruments, and to defend
herself from the flow of markers, which represent
the lack. This way she hints that in the intimate
atmosphere of an empty room her non-fragmented
self is still possible.




Maja Ciric, curator
( solo-exhibition Playing instrumentsobjects
in the empty room )