Ana Sluga, Still Life
by Božidar Zrinski
With the carefully chosen title of this exhibition, Ana Sluga takes us on a brief journey into the history of Arts and reminds us, that the still life motif, despite depicting scenically and compositionally set inanimate objects, is full of interesting content emphasis. The title proves to be absolutely spot-on, as the exhibit is opening the space to interpretations and searching for meanings by setting up two different video pieces on opposing sides of the gallery.
The viewer is faced with an ambience that is predominated by inherent contrasts in the installation and the formal structure of individual video pieces, that are edited in a way that the picture and sound are contrasting each other or are coexisting in an absurd harmony, where sound is not a part of the picture and the picture is not a part of the sound. On one side of the gallery there is a simple video of a working traffic light, shot in a time loop, that is not just an aesthetic play on colours and shapes, but also symbolizes the vital rhythm of the man in the urban surroundings, that he is more or less successfully adapting to his own wishes and needs. Its opposite on the other side of the gallery is a natural scene of the moment of mists rising in the morning dawn as the night changes into day. This can be interpreted as a depiction of the surroundings that by far exceed the individual, as it represents time itself and the inherent vital rhythm of the universe, that humankind still fails to fully comprehend, to be able to properly coexist with it.
The exhibition Still Life is a thorough content study, that the author has analysed and literally dismantled into separate parts, designed the sequences and with skilled and refined editing recomposed into a new whole. Her video still lives are defined by thoughtful motif selection and surroundings that the moving picture sets above a photograph or classic picture.
The exhibition suggests that the still life motif could be a safe deviation from questioning and dealing with the present, offering it as a deliberate and intimate response to the position of man in modern society and his perception of the present.
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Ana Sluga nas s premišljeno izbranim naslovom razstave najprej za trenutek zapelje v zgodovino umetnosti in spomni, da je bil motiv tihožitja, kljub upodabljanju scensko in kompozicijsko urejenih mrtvih stvari, poln zanimivih vsebinskih poudarkov. Naslov se izkaže za pravega, saj razstava s postavitvijo dveh raznolikih video del, vsakega na svojo stran galerije, odpira prostor za interpretacijo in luščenje pomenov.
Gledalec se sooči z ambientom, v katerem vlada nasprotje v sami postavitvi in tudi formalni strukturi vsakega posameznega video dela, ki sta zmontirana tako, da sta si slika in zvok v nasprotju oziroma bivata v absurdnem sozvočju, ko zvok ni del posnetka in posnetek ni del zvoka. Na eno stran postavljen preprost video delujočega prometnega semaforja, posnetega v zanko, ni samo estetska igra barv in oblik, ampak simbolizira življenjski ritem človeka v njegovem urbanem okolju, ki ga bolj ali manj uspešno kontrolirano preobraža glede na lastne želje in potrebe. Njegovo nasprotje na drugi strani galerije je posnetek trenutka iz narave, ko se meglice dvignejo v jutranji zarji in se noč prevesi v dan. To lahko razumemo kot podobo vzdušja, ki je veliko večje od človeka samega, saj predstavlja čas in svojevrsten življenjski ritem vesolja, ki ga človeštvo še vedno ni povsem doumelo, da bi lahko z njim na pravi način sobivalo.
Razstava Still Life odraža temeljito raziskovanje vsebine, ki jo umetnica analizira in dobesedno razstavi na posamezne dele, oblikuje sekvence in jih s spretno in prefinjeno montažo ponovno sestavi v novo celoto. Njena video tihožitja zaznamujeta premišljena izbira motiva in predvsem vzdušje, ki ga gibljiva slika v primerjavi s fotografijo ali klasično sliko, lahko le nadgradi. Razstava nakazuje, da bi lahko bil motiv tihožitja varen odmik od problematiziranja in soočanja s sedanjostjo, vendar ga ponudi kot premišljen in intimen odgovor na položaj človeka v današnji družbi in na njegovo občutenje sedanjosti.
Božidar Zrinski