Uršula Berlot : artist statement

Pulsation / Cross-sections, 2007
Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany

Spatial light installation pulsation/ cross-sections consist of a heterogeneous group of works. Their individual forms and content are transposed onto each other, translated, reproduced or reflected by various media, coming together to form an artificial, yet seemingly organic mental landscape. Spatial installation of light and video projections, transparent pictures on plexiglass and mirroring images set on an aluminum supports come together to form a colorless and dematerialized landscape, which reflects cold, sharp and unusually glaring light, bringing together abstract, organic-like motives and immaterial elements as light reflections, projections and shadows.

A horizontal disposition of art works, crystalline and bio-amorphous in form, reflected in space with their elements projecting themselves onto each other, refers to nature, which in this artistic interpretation becomes unnatural, remote and utopian. Light installation conjure up a play in balancing the tension between gravity and levitation, transposing the material into immaterial, searching the intelligible in the sensual. Rather than reproducing natural landscapes it manifests the energetic mental, immaterial but nevertheless bodily constituted organic topologies.

Video works and fractal compositions are formally based on an x-ray scan of author’s brain, as particularly these cerebral tissues present a unique point of contact and the indivisible link of the organic body with the energy-level mentality. The central part of this installation are two video works Pulsation, that present a pulsating light phenomena, the bodily/ organic and technologically generated hybrid as light apparition composed through the layering of light reflection, video projection of radiological scan of the artist’s brain and its computer modified video recorded images.

The installation is conceived to form a metaphoric space of dissimilative analogies in a string of optical light effects, mirroring relations and replications, thus constituting a challenge for expanded perceptional experience and allowing the viewer to create ever-changing, imaginary, entirely individual mental landscapes. The installation creates a floating, volatile, ephemeral space of fleeting illusions and incorporated apparitions, oscillating between spatial and temporal dimensions of perception and offering to the viewer an open frame for his/her interpretations, inter-connections, creations of new connotations and an expanded (self)reflection.

Pulzija / Prečna presečišča, 2007
Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Nemčija

Svetlobna instalacija pulzija/ prečna presečišča predstavlja heterogeno skupino del, ki prevajajo in reproducirajo analogne formalno vsebinske elemente iz enega medija v drugega. Prostorska konstelacija svetlobnih in video projekcij, transparentih slik na pleksi steklu in odsevajočih del na aluminijevi podlagi ustvari umetno, brezbarvno, dematerializirano pokrajino, ki sije v hladni, ostri in nenavadno bleščeči svetlobi in združuje abstrahirane, organskim podobne motive s povsem nematerialnimi elementi, kot so svetlobni odsevi, projekcije in sence.

Horizontalna postavitev del, kristalinične in bio-amorfne oblike, ki se odsevajo v prostoru in projicirajo iz enega dela v drugega, se referirajo na naravo, ki v tej umetniški interpretaciji postane nenaravna, oddaljena in utopična. Svetlobna postavitev se igra z ravnotežjem med silo gravitacije in levitacije, prehajanjem snovnega v nesnovno, iskanjem inteligibilnega v čutnem in bolj kot naravni krajini ustreza energetsko mentalnim, nematerialnim, vendar telesno konstituiranim organskim topologijam.

Formalna osnova video del in fraktalnih kompozicij je radiološki posnetek lastnih možganov, saj je prav cerebralno tkivo edinstveno mesto stika in nedeljive povezave organsko-telesnega in energetsko-mentalnega. Ključen element postavitve predstavljata dve video deli Pulzija, ki predstavljata pulzirajoč svetlobni pojav, organsko tehnološki hibrid, generiran skozi plastenje projekcijskih postopkov: radiološkega magnetno resonančnega video posnetka lastne lobanje in računalniško manipuliranih posnetkov svetlobnih odsevov projekcij tega videa.

Postavitev, ki je zasnovana kot metaforičen prostor disimilativnih podobnosti v nizu svetlobnih optičnih učinkov, projekcij, zrcalnih podvojitev in replikacij ustvarja zaznavni dispozitiv za gledalca, ki v intenzivirani senzibilni percepciji subjektivno ustvarja vsakič drugačne imaginarne, povsem individualne cerebralne pokrajine. Instalacija vzpostavlja lebdeč, eteričen prostor efemernih iluzij in utelešenih prividov, ki oscilira med prostosko-časovnimi dimenzijami percepcije in ponuja gledalcu odprt okvir za njegove lastne interpretacije, iskanje vmesnih povezav, imaginacijo novih pomenskih vsebin in večjo (samo)refleksivnost.

Transitoriness 2006/07
Gallery Božidar Jakac, a monastic church in Kostanjevica na Krki, Slovenia

The exhibition Transitoriness is a site-specific light installation, conceived specifically for the meditative and monumental space of a former monastic church. The project explores the phenomenon of sensation and extended perception, from the most non-material manifestation of subtle conscious states to its cerebral physiological basis, living brain tissue. It concerns itself with states of consciousness, a fluid-energy current of alternating mental energies and spiritual states, which is inseparately linked with openness as well as the spatial and temporal multidimensionality of our perceptions. I am interested in the ‘desubjectivation’ of sensation which does not lead to chaotic conclusions, or in the ‘stabilization of autonomic entities which have no connection to their carriers’ (Deleuze, Guattari) and which surpass the object as well as the subject.

The dematerialized spatial installation in analogy to mental processes creates an abstract landscape of moving, waving light reflections and projections of crystal-like fractal forms, thus presenting a concrete disposition of an “object, created within our perception”. Open forms of installations, with nonmaterial elements of shadows and reflections, extend into space and incorporate it into their body; dealing with the concept of dissolution of borders between the interior and exterior, transition of material into non-material, the real into the virtual … In addition to the kinetic light installations the exhibition includes two video presentations as well: 'Introspection' is an X-ray picture of the artist's brain, taken by means of medical technology. Computer-developed photos, providing this very concrete insight into the pulsative brain tissue, are also a formal basis of crystalline, fractal forms/diagrams, which alternate on the plexiglass of transparent objects. 'Virtual Vitreosity' is a kinetic kaleidoscopic video projection, simulating a stained-glass window in an architectural niche, which by recurrent color patterns makes a hypnotic and meditative impression, thus referring to the aesthetic and symbolic use of light in a sacred context. At the same time it calls into question the border between the real and the simulated, reality and fiction ...

Prehodnost 2006/ 07
Galerija Božidar Jakac, samostanska cerkev v Kostanjevici na Krki, Slovenija

Razstava Prehodnost je site specific svetlobna instalacija, zamišljena za meditativen in monumentalen prostor nekdanje samostanske cerkve. Projekt se ukvarja z idejo čutenja in razširjene zaznave, od najbolj nematerialnih manifestacij subtilnih zavestnih stanj do njene cerebralno fiziološke osnove, živega tkiva možganov. Obravnava fenomen zavesti, fluiden energetski tok spreminjajočih se mentalnih energij in duhovnih stanj, ki je nedoločljivo povezan z odprtostjo in prostorsko časovno večdimenzionalnostjo naših zaznav. Zanima me desubjektivacija čutenja, ki ne pripelje do kaotičnih zaključkov, oziroma 'stabilizacija avtonomnih entitet, ki nimajo nobene zveze s svojimi prvotnimi nosilci' (Deleuze, Guattari) in ki presegajo tako objekt kot subjekt.

Dematerializirana prostorska postavitev v analogiji z mentalnimi procesi oblikuje abstraktno krajino gibljivih, organsko valujočih svetlobnih odsevov in projekcij kristalom podobnih fraktalnih oblik, ter predstavlja konkretni dispozitiv ‘objekta, ki ga ustvari šele naša zaznava‘. Odprte forme instalacij, ki z nematerialnimi elementi senc in odsevov segajo v prostor in ga vkorporirajo v svoje telo, obravnavajo koncept disolucije mej med zunanjim in notranjim, prehajanj snovnega v nesnovno, realnega v virtualno… Poleg svetlobno kinetičnih instalacij razstava vključuje tudi dve video deli; ‘Introspekcija‘je z medicinsko tehnologijo posnet radiološki posnetek lastnih možganov, računalniško obdelane fotografije tega konkretnega vpogleda v pulzirajoče tkivo lastne notranjosti pa so tudi formalna osnova kristalnih, fraktalnih oblik/ diagramov, ki se ponavljajo na pleksi steklu transparentnih objektov. ‘Navidezna zasteklitev‘ pa je projekcija v arhitekturni niši simuliranega kalejdoskopskega vitraja, ki s ponavljajočimi barvnimi vzorci deluje hipnotično, meditativno in se referira na estetsko in simbolno uporabo svetlobe v sakralnem kontekstu, obenem pa koceptualizira vprašanje mej med realnim in simuliranim, resničnim in fikcijo ...

2005 Attractions

I am interested in discovering subtle, invisible, intangible but manifestly present principles defining the nature and our perception. As my works of art using lights and translucent materials expose the immaterial and make use of some physical - chemical laws while in search of their form structure (gravity, crystallization, dripping and solidification of fluids.), so does the multimedia project 'Attractions' focus on magnetism - invisible physical phenomena visualized in many ways: through video, kinetic objects, air-brush drawings and photographies of enlarged configurations of particles.
Consequences of this invisible natural activity - audible and visual traces of metal particles affected by magnetic force, metaphorically speak about uncommon inner logic of apparently coincidental and chaotic (natural or mental) phenomena and in the same time reinvestigate the certitude of our cognitive capacity about the distinction between living and non-living, natural and artificial.'

Privlačnosti

Zanima me odkrivanje subtilno zaznavnih, nevidnih, netaktilnih a manifestativno prisotnih urejevalnih principov v naravi in na¹i percepciji. Tako kot dela s svetlobo in prosojnimi materiali izpostavijo nematerialnost in vkljuèevanje naravno fizikalno kemiènih procesov pri iskanju oblik (gravitacija, kristalizacija, kapljanje in strjevanje tekoèin...), se tudi veèmedijski projekt 'Privlaènosti' osredotoèa na fizikalen pojav magnetizma, ki ga vizualizira na razliène naèine: z kinetiènimi objekti, video zapisom, risbami in fotografijami poveèanih konfiguracij delcev.

Konsekvence tega nevidnega naravnega delovanja - zvoèni in vizualni zapisi premikov namagnetenih delcev, metaforièno govorijo o nenavadni notranji ureditvi navidez nakljuènih ali kaotiènih (naravnih in mentalnih) pojavov in obenem preizpra¹ujejo gotovost na¹ih kognitivnih sposobnosti o distinkciji ¾ivega in ne¾ivega, naravnega in umetnega...

2003 Crystal Shade

I'm relating my art to the notion of nature. I'm interested in elementary organic processes in nature, metamorphic states of light and matter and their analogies with mental phenomena in within our perception.

In my light objects I explore the relationships between material and immaterial, sensibility and intelligibility, transitional and eternal... The resulting optical illusory spaces are capable of setting unusual perceptional challenges for the viewer's individual experience of time and space.

Thus, I create new technological visual spaces, which sensitize the viewer's perception and open dimensions of consciousness that widely differ from those we are used to.

An Interview with Uršula Berlot
DELO (national daily newspaper), 13. November 2003

Overflowing Light

Translated fragment:
... Your work is indelibly marked by light. How do you capture it?
I have used light as a basic art element, a means of expression ever since my earliest work at the Academy, when I applied liquid translucent colors to create monochrome abstract landscapes. I was interested in transparency and an illusion of deepness in the painting, which made me look for light / dark contrast in particular. As this manner of painting is based on the formation of various degrees of light, I intensively looked for a spacious dimension of picture. Later I started using other transparent materials like Plexiglas, varnish, artificial resin, which required a special treatment of light sources and different ways of projection. In my latest work, where totally transparent material is used, I create shades, reflections, projections, that is to say immaterial extensions of an object.

Why artificial resin? What possibilities of expression does it offer to you?
This is a fluid substance, which in a chemical process solidifies, crystallizes, so that I can use organic fluid forms. It enables the stabilization of amorphous organic shapes (drops, formless stains...) and the handling of indefinite fluid material. Thus I touch upon the question of coincidence and horizontality. I make use of different procedures to obtain shapes: either by artificial resin, which drops through nets and is applied in organic forms to Plexiglas, or by bending Plexiglas, projecting light upon or through it and creating immaterial shades, projections and reflections. In this manner I extend the margins of the work of art, which spreads in immaterial elements, and thus create incorporeal and intangible phenomena.

To what extent does your work include coincidence?
I know precisely enough what kind of structure I want and get by using a particular procedure. A degree of deviation is possible, so coincidence does play a certain role, but only within the process, since I do not change the conceptual content of the work. As far as content is concerned, there are no deviations, I do not intervene in the process of forming shapes by any gesture. Though it may seem paradoxical, coincidence is thus controlled and whatever appears is correct, if I use this awkward word. A procedural way of creating a work of art is concerned here, because my work is closely tied to the idea of nature. In my procedures I make use of gravitation, decantation and solidification of material, organic forms, horizontal dimensions and laws of coincidence and entropy, which are all essential in nature.

Is nature the basic lever of your creation?
I am inspired mostly by elementary physical and chemical processes of natural phenomena and elementary states of light and matter.

What is the importance of space in your setting?
Space is of prime importance on many levels. I am interested in inter-space, a space of relations, a relative, virtual, imaginative and subjective space. What is important is the setting and the position of works of art in a concrete space as well as imaginary relations among them established by the viewer. I am also interested in the space of the object of light. Transparency of Plexiglass erases boundaries of inner and external space, while light causes a transition of material into immaterial, a passage into an illusionary space. Thus I create intermediary territories of visionary spacial movements. Tansparency of glass acts as a mirror, its reflection is not only turned back but can also be seen through. In the intersection of reflection and transparency there openes a mobile, virtual image. However, presently I have developed more interest in the openness of space and dimension of divergence rather than in depth.