SNEZANA SARASWATI PETROVIC
Collateral Damage is an immersive installation that speaks to the damage and harm we are causing to nature, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
I am on a journey of discovery to find new ways of imagining freedom from our current climate-change circumstances. I find myself like the giant blue marlin captured and entangled in an abundance of plastic zip-ties hoping for release. I invite you to explore Collateral Damage to discover the data, influences and inspiration behind my call for action with the hope that a dialogue will help us to face and re-discover a better future for humanity and the Earth.
ARTIST BIO
Multi media artist, and an award-winning set/costume designer
Snezana Saraswati Petrovic is a multi-media artist and an award-winning set and costume designer.
Snezana has exhibited both nationally and internationally in Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Singapore, Tokyo, Prague, and Belgrade, at the venues in Los Angeles including the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and Stedijilk Museum in Amsterdam. She worked under Judi Chicago on the project "Envisioning the Future" at Pomona Arts Colony (2002) which solidified her focus on the environmental issues.
Snezana is the recipient of numerous awards in USA and Europe including the “Golden Arena” for Production Design in feature movie “Harms Case” and “Ovation 2010, Los Angeles” for the costume design in the Large Theater category. Snezana was also awarded UC Regents Grant, Center for Cultural Innovation Quick Grant and National Endowment for the Arts project grant.
She served as art, art history, and theater design instructor with California State University , Los Angeles (1997-2002) and the University of Redlands, Redlands, CA (2004-present). She also served as Chair of Fine Arts Department, Professional Development Coordinator, and Professor at Crafton Hills College, Yucaipa, CA (2002-2019).
Her MFA thesis in theater set design process was the first in USA done as an interactive CD_ROM format as a predecessor to DVD format now widely spread.
Her most recent solo installation and AR exploration “Collateral Damage: Re-Call” will be presented at Gallery 825, Los Angeles from January 15th until February 18th, 2022. Snezana holds an MFA from University of California, Irvine, CA; a BFA, from Belgrade University, Yugoslavia; and Professor Emerita in Arts from Crafton Hills College, Yucaipa, CA.
CAUSE OF COLLATERAL DAMAGE BLACK CARBON
Particulate PM2.5 µg/m3 : A Pensive Saga
This video is a poetic meditation on scientific data revolving around the story of the global spread of Black Carbon (BC), a component of fine particulate matter PM ≤ 2.5 µm. It is structured as a polyptych in four sections: Spread-Detection-Prevention-Activation. It was created as a series of real time animated drawings, depicting the story of spread of Black Carbon, with a movement from white to black to white. The flashes of a SF imaginary character “The Mother” come in/out as a chorus from the Greek tragedies warning us of the potential dismal future. The fourth segment: Activation is a static image that invites the audience to affect the change by use of ARTIVIA app. The sound scape is created from the actual recordings from nature reflective of BC’s destruction and effects, e.g. rain patterns, ocean, fire, air/wind, breath and asthmatic cough. The intention at the end of this video saga is to highlight the harmony between humans and nature while fighting together as both: saviors and climate warriors.
COLLATERAL DAMAGE FUTURE:BIONIC GARDEN
length 2:31min
The Future Bionic Garden is indoor/outdoor video installation is created as dystopian model garden with "fake" infomercial promoting benefits and advantages of plastic-fantastic garden while featuring the fictional character The Mother from “Collateral Damage” project. The upbeat repetitive music, bold colors, crude stop-motion animation of happy bionic-bugs dance are masking a grim possible future where the face and body are completely covered due to the pollution. The sci-fi environment is in a playful way both critique of our consumption of plastic as well as call to the action at the 11th hour.
The most recent installation was presented during the Covid 19 lock down for "Durden and Ray" Gallery in Los Angeles.
WOUNDS TRAPPED IN FABRIC OF TIME
This installation is a contemplation on the history of violence and deep psychological and physical wounds that women endured globally and through the history. On a deep personal level it is my confession of fragility and permanence of pain even when the wounds are seemingly healed.
The choice of zip ties, as tools of captivity e.g. hand cuffs and properties of the plastic as endured material that will surpass us and damage the nature, is metaphor for the passages of time in its increments and continuity. My journey through life is mapped in each stop in this net.
Bloody red paint on a gauze are witnesses of pain buried or interwoven into a memory.
Each time the installation is located on another site is meant to embrace the space in different ways, while altering the “pain” visibility. Regardless, the pain always stay trapped in the fabric of time.
CONTACT
13040 Cerise Ave
Hawthorne Arts Complex
Hawthorne,CA 90250
2135901705