Dusanka Komnenic
THE SHEDDING CYCLE
This work is a conflation of the recognizable limits of
material; the essential nature of ‘technique’ and the coalescence of these
properties to produce meaning. My work documents a series of discoveries and
interactions that attempt to extend the schema of painting beyond the simple
production of the inert cultural artifact. The work exposes the limitations of
technique as it becomes analogous to the body.
My paintings are a response to the background in figurative
representation I have. Previously, the more that I was investigating the body, the more I was becoming bored with the lack of
surprise and the discovery aspect of the process itself. The notion that I
needed a figure to confirm and justify my practice paralyzed, rather than
challenged me to further pursue that path.
I became interested in the visceral and textural qualities
of the body instead of a view of the body itself. Through the evolution of my
practice I focused on the organic quality and subliminal presence of the body
detaching a literal representation of it from the work. I expanded the space of
experiment, exposing myself to a variety of traditional and non traditional
material and combining those together in arbitrary variations. Taking in to account
the resistance of water and oil-based materials to one another, I pealed off the upper layer
revealing all the otherwise hidden layers and obscured workings. The dialog
between the visible and the “invisible” became the primary sphere of my
interest.
As the process of making art is of great importance to me,
I feel it needs to be embodied not solely as a completed piece, but more as a
suggestion that the visible is not the ultimate facet to be perceived. I reveal
the insides of the painting indicating the importance of the process, but the
presence of the peeled-off surface brings me back to the realm of the body, not
in its literal representation, but more in its concealed associations.
The torn open surfaces resemble skin and the inner layers
become organic tissues and the bodily fluids of the paintings. While the
representation of the body is eliminated, a relationship to the body is
reestablished. It becomes apparent that whatever material I use and however I
mix it, I remain within the same sensibility.
This series speaks paradoxically of the limitation of ideas
being manifested through my body, where in a narcissistic way,
the body cannot escape being reflected back into the work.
Dusanka Komnenic was born
in 1976 in Trebinje, BiH
and graduated Photography at the
While in the USA Dusanka becomes interested in anatomy of the Painting
rather than that of the elements presented in the painting. The process of
painting grows to be imperative, while finished prepared for gallery piece of
art becomes inferior.
Since 2002 Dusanka
teaches art at the
Dusanka is a member of ULUS
(Fine Arts Artiststs Association of Serbia and Franklin Furnace Archive, New
York. Her works are published in The New York Times, Art in America, Artforum,
Academic Keys. Photo Net, Left Curve Magazine. Dusanka currently
lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia.
Ms Komnenic solo exhibition includes exhibitions in Serbia - Galerija 73, Galerija Singidunum, BasKuca, The Aquarius Gallery,
Gallery 19 Steps, as well as in the US - White Box Gallery
New York, Project Asylum NYC, Mayhem Gallery, Wisconsin, INOVA Gallery,
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Gallery #3, Wisconsin and at the Museum
of Herzegovina in Trebinje.
She has
also participated in numerous group exhibitions among them are
Mixer festival, Kvart SKC, Velika galerija Belgrade;
Banski dvori, Banja Luka, Bosnia; National Museum, Sabac, Serbia; Cvijeta Zuzoric, Beograd and Kulturni centar Jalovik, Serbia.
The Embassy of the
has the pleasure to present
“Shedding Cycle”
by Dusanka
Komnenic
December 21 – January 10, 2010
Opening
of the exhibition on December 21, 2010 at 6, 00 pm
at the
Embassy of the