CONTRASTS BETWEEN REAL AND VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE
Maša Gala je kreativna ustvarjalka, ki se ukvarja s slikanjem, fotografijo in grafiko. Umetnica mlajše generacije, ki je zaključila študij slikarstva in grafike na ljubljanski Akademiji za likovne umetnosti, svoje umetniško znanje na področju fotografije pa izpopolnjevala na Akademiji za Umetnost, Oblikovanje in Arhitekturo v Pragi, izrazito nadarjenost nadgrajuje s predanostjo ter čvrsto utrjuje lastno umetniško pot.
Za umetniška dela Maše Gala je značilno nenehno eksperimentiranje z različnimi materiali. Z gradbenimi materiali in slikarskimi tehnikami skuša preseči klasično uporabo le-teh in jim ustvariti povsem nove uporabne vrednosti oziroma kot pravi umetnica sama, “reproducirati materiale kot lastne tehnološke izume”. Njen slikarski koncept je abstrakcija, barvna risba kombinirana s kolažem fotografij, starih zemljevidov, atlasov, časopisnih in spletnih člankov, z dodajanjem akrilnih pigmentov, oljnih pastelov, ki jih kombinira z gradbenimi mrežami, zidnimi barvami, ibitolom, z različnimi laki, premazi in spreji, ki dajejo umetnini poseben sijaj.
Maša Gala z uporabo analognih in digitalnih medijev poizkuša doseči simulacijo digitalizirane vizualne podobe, z uporabo klasične slikarske tehnike, fotografije ali preko kiparskih tehnik. Simulaker, kakršnega ustvarja Maša Gala, je umetniški pojav, ki hoče po-ustvariti znak – proizvesti simulacijo tistega, česar v realnosti ni, oziroma raz-preti upodobitev simulakra s slikarskimi, kiparskimi, grafičnimi in oblikovalskimi tehnikami ter tako klasični umetniški svet pretopiti v svet digitaliziranih podob.
Temelja sta gradbena mreža in risba, na katera umetnica lepi kolaže podob iz vsakdanjega življenja: različne fotografije, ki so avtorske ali izvzete iz svetovnega spleta, kombinira s slikarskimi in gradbenimi materiali. Sliko plasti z nanosi pigmentov, sprejev in barv do te mere, da poustvari videz digitalne podobe na »ekranu«. Simulaker digitalnega medija s simulacijo analognega.
V slikarskih upodobitvah Maše Gala je prisotna osebna refleksija, v kateri je viden kontrast med realno in virtualno izkušnjo – med digitalno in analogno podobo. Koncept pikslov, mrežnosti in digitalnosti je v novejših delih vedno bolj poudarjen (Fluid, Memory lane, Mapping 2014), prepleta se z organskostjo, s subjektivno risbo, gesto in formo. Gre za medije s področja fotografije, filma, radia, televizije, tako imenovane nove medije, ki so osvojili področja človeške percepcije, ki so bila pred tem rezervirana le za klasično umetnost. Novi mediji imajo povsem unikatni estetski potencial ustvarjanja vizualnih izkustev in so globalni vir umetniške inspiracije.
Zanimivost Maše Gala je tudi v subliminalni dimenziji njenih umetniških del. Z uporabo fotografije, ki jo nadgrajuje s plastmi, dosega učinek simulakra realnosti: subliminalni rez oziroma hitre (v filmih ponavadi v obliki vrinjenih »frame-ov«) prekinitve z vstavki podob, ki so vidne le za trenutek, kar pa je dovolj, da se zabeležijo v nezavedno opazovalca. »Subliminal cut« (subliminalni rez) je stvaritev digitalnih mediiev. V šestdesetih ga Hitchcock uporabi v svetovno znani grozljivki Psycho. Subliminalni rez je tako podoba, ki ni nikoli prevladujoča, zaradi česar jo zlahka tudi spregledamo, če ne vemo, da je tam.
Maša Gala se igra tudi z objekti in njihovo funkcionalno ter estetsko komponento. Omenimo zgolj uporabo steklenih prizm, ki so znana arhitekturna in gradbena enota. Z umetniško intervencijo je stekleni prizmi, izdelani iz osemcentimetrskega stekla, dodala uporabno umetniško vrednost ter s tem ustvarila novo distorzijsko upodobitev. Zagotovo je šola Bauhaus naslednji umetničin zgled revolucionarnega ustvarjanja, povezanega z nastajanjem njene umetnine, ki postaja funkcionalna. Ta funkcionalnost se pri Maši Gala kaže predvsem v tem, da pri nastajanju vizualnih podob, slik, objektov ali instalacij, eksperimentira z gradbenimi materiali ter dodaja likovni umetnini efekt nepogrešljivega dela bivanjskega prostora.
Umetnica Maša Gala v vseh svojih delih poudarja in raziskuje interakcijo med umetnino, gledalcem in umetnico. Če npr. Strehovec interaktivnost novih medijev upravičuje s tem, da je gledalec dejansko uporabnik dela, saj mora stvaritev praviloma vključiti oziroma aktivirati, kar pomeni, da je v funkciji sooblikovalca dela in če na drugi strani Manovich opozarja, da interaktivnost ni »nova značilnost umetniških del«, saj so bila že klasična ter moderna dela “interaktivna”, moramo ugotoviti, da Maša Gala prestaplja mejo med obema možnostima, s čimer razpira pravzaprav neskončno simulakrsko polje.
Nina Jeza, Artists&Poor’s
Kuratorica razstave “ON THE GRID ”
CONTRASTS BETWEEN REAL AND VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE
Maša Gala is a creative artist engaged in painting, photography and graphics. She is the artist of a younger emerging generation who graduated in painting and graphics at the Ljubljana Academy of Arts and continued her studies of photography at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. She upgrades her extreme talent with dedication, thus firmly establishing her artistic way.
Her works of arts are characterised by continuous experimenting with various materials. By using building materials and different painting techniques she tries to surpass their classical use and create completely new application value for them or as the artist herself says »reproduce the materials as her own technological inventions«. Her painting concept is abstraction, a coloured drawing combined with a collage from assemblage of photos, old maps, atlas, newspaper and Internet articles with the addition of pigments in acrylic, oil pastels combined with construction nets, wall paints, bitumen primer, various varnishes, finishes and sprays which give the work of art a special brilliance.
By using analogous and digital media as well as classical painting technique, photography or sculpture techniques Maša Gala tries to achieve a simulation of a digitalized visual image. Simulacrum as created by Maša Gala, is therefore an artistic phenomenon which tries to recreate – produce simulation of something that does not exist in reality thus presenting the formation of simulacrum using various techniques such as painting, sculpture, graphics and design which convert the classical artistic world into the world of digitalized images.
The substratum is a construction net and a drawing, the artist uses collage to glue scenes of everyday life on them: various photos taken by the author or from the Internet, combined with painting and construction materials. She works in layers by applying pigments, sprays and colours to the painting so that she creates the appearance of a digital picture on a »screen«. A simulacrum of a digital medium with a simulation of the analogue one.
The paintings of Maša Gala bear personal reflexion showing a pronounced contrast between a real and virtual experience – between digital and analogous image. The concept of pixels, nets and digitality is being more and more pronounced in her latest works (Fluid, Memory lane, Mapping 2014), it is interwoven with organic, subjective painting, gesture and form. These are the media from the field of photography, film, radio, television – the so-called new media which conquered the human perception that used to be reserved for the classical art only. The new media have unique aesthetic potential of creating visual experience and are a global source of artistic inspiration.
Another point of interest in Maša Gala’s work is also a sublimal dimension of her works of art. Using photography which she upgrades with layers she achieves the effect of a simulacrum of reality: a subliminal cut (in the films usually as inserted frames) interruptions with inserted images which can be visible only for a moment, yet long enough to be recorded in the sub consciousness of a viewer. Subliminal cut was created by digital media. In the sixties Hitchcock used it in the well-known horror film Psycho. He used a distorted shot of the deformed face of Norman Bates, intertwined with the heaving of a car form a swamp in order to insert a single shot of his mother’s body with her skeleton face which in the shot devours Norman’s face immediately before the closing credits. Subliminal cut is thus the image which never prevails; therefore it can be easily overlooked if we do not know that it exists.
Maša Gala plays with the objects and their functional and aesthetic components. Her use of glass prisms, which are known architectural and construction unit, should be pointed out. With artistic intervention she added the application value to a glass prism made of 8-cm glass. In this way she created a new distortional image. The Bauhaus school is doubtlessly the artist’s model of revolutionary creation related to the creation of her work of art which is becoming functional. This functionality is primarily demonstrated in Maša Gala’s experimenting with building material to create visual images, objects or installations thus adding her work of art the effect of indispensable part of residential space.
In all her works Maša Gala emphasizes and investigates interaction between a work of art, viewer and the artist. If for example Strehovec justifies the interactivity of new media by the fact that the viewer is actually the end consumer of the work since he/she has to switch on the media creation or activate its meaning thus acting as a co-creator of the work, and if on the other side Manovich calls our attention to the fact that interactivity is not »a novelty in the works of art« since classical as well as modern works have already been »interactive«, we have to conclude that Maša Gala trespasses the limit between the two possibilities and consequently opens the infinite field of simulacra.
Nina Jeza, Artists&Poor’s
Povezave:
www.mgml.si/bezigrajska-galerija-1/prihodnje-razstave-484/masa-gala-vsi-casi-4174
Portet Masa Gala Profest 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdHITfEOYok
