Katarina Juričić

Have fun :), 2023

 

The photographic installation Have fun :) represents an imaginary amusement park inviting the viewers to have fun and indulge in visual hypnosis.

 

The work is the result of research into the language and tricks employed by advertising in order to attract attention and provoke the viewers’ desire. Emphasis is placed on the magical potential of photography to transcend reality and absorb us into a dimension that might seem familiar, but is, in fact, entirely artificial. 

 

The main motif of the installation is the sensorial experience of being in an amusement park. As soon as we enter, we are immediately overwhelmed by an intense cacophony of blasting sounds, flashing lights, scents, and a strong visual input teleporting us into another dimension. In the era of absolute digitalisation of experiences and our very being, amusement parks, just as art exhibitions, become necessary and powerful forms of escapism. This is what I’ve aimed to embody in this work. 

 

The colourful structure offers different pathways of navigating around the work, making the experience more dynamic and fun. Printed as lenticular prints, the static images come to life and provoke visual sensations as the viewers move along.

How to See the Sea, 2021

 

This work stems from my fascination with the sea and being underwater. From the very romantic affection for the sea, the feeling it creates, and the state of mind it brings us to, the project expands further into a direction where the apparent utopian coexistence of humans and the sea takes a dystopian turn – laying bare our biological incapability to be truly human, since we cannot breathe, walk or see underwater. To overcome our physical shortcomings, we use technology (diving equipment, underwater cameras, submarines…) to get to know and experience the underwater world. But regardless of the vast technological development, our knowledge and experience of the underwater universe are still very limited and the sea remains the most under-explored part of our planet, veiled in mystery not dissimilar to Outer Space.

 

These ideas come together in a spatial installation alluding to the interior of an imaginary submarine, while circular photographic works with custom light frames serve as windows into the subaquatic infinity.



Orange&Blue, 2019

 

Staring at the Sun and the Sea, the scenery is magical and I feel relieved. The light and the colours nurture my eyes, and the images stay in my mind. Infinite combinations of Orange and Blue, compressed in a memory where reality merges with fantasy. 

 

In ‘Orange&Blue’, a photographic series which takes the final form as a site-specific installation, I recall a very familiar yet sublime experience of Sunrise and Sunset.

 

Scenes such as the first ray of sunshine of the day or the sun setting behind the horizon are both emotionally profound and visually stimulating. As such, they provoke an intuitive reaction to memorialise them. This results in an overflow of similar photographs in which all the magic of the sublime experience is reduced to an immaterial reproduction of the “already seen”.

 

By taking as reference the iconic imagery of sunrises and sunsets which permeate our memory, I strive to recreate the full range of sunlight colours that we experience throughout the day. The orange and blue light serve as a tool for coming as close as possible to the feeling of being in the sun and soaking in its warmth and colour. Throughout the process of reimagining the iconic imagery, figuration reaches abstraction, and all that is left in the image are light, form, and colour – ultimately the constitutive elements of any photograph.

Homeseack, 2018

 

Home Seack is one of the chapters in my ongoing study on Light, Form, and Colour. A series of staged compositions with objects and places encountered on the island of Brač. The motives are abstract associations related to my idea of home, stemming from memory, in which reality and fantasy merge.

A contemplation of the state of coexistence in several places at once, both physically and virtually, Home Seack portrays the emotional relationship with the environment of Brač, my summer home. Each arrival on Brač evokes a feeling of relief in me. This series is an attempt to evoke that same feeling. However, being away from the island turns relief into homesickness, which in my case becomes homeseackness.