Kíra Lancz-Kopcsai

Studio work @ Ilam School of Fine Arts and Kenyon College

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Final, pt. II.

The following images were done in natural light:

And these were shot with a strong light (I personally like the natural light better):

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Final presentation of the self-portrait project (untitled, as of May 26th)

I created two series of shadow-works, closely connected but different in “materials”. In the first one, the shadow was casted on surfaces around my childhood home.

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The color-screens

The glass panels create the final iteration of my self-portrait, even though it is not physically a part of the composition. I already shared wip pictures of some of the panels, but I think showing how they work in natural light -- and in relation to each other -- is beneficial to viewing the work itself. The panel used for the actual presentation of the work is building on the previous experiments in colors and pattern, but I revisited a drawing from earlier to create more cohesive imagery and to suggest a narrative.

Final panel:

Sketches of “Varázsmagok//Magical seeds”:

I find the seeds an interesting concept to portray a figure in an environment of patterns that can have a variety of added meaning. In this project, I tried to turn the pattern into an imprint of my spirit, my thinking and my most basic visual library. I automatically attach meaning to the word “seed”: growth, becoming, development, nutrients, essence, nature, origin, heritage. I quite like the relationship between these words and the patterning.

I also experimented with layering the panels from the different stages of the project development:

Detail shots:

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Church windows from Champagne

These are some beautiful stained-glass windows I saw last summer in France, and they’ve been serving as my inspiration for this project.

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Getting there...

This past week I’ve been working on getting closer to the final iteration of the self portrait project. A big part of this process is material study - I cleaned a couple more glass panels and I did a series of experiments with different ways of bringing out the color of the shadow-patterns (plastic filters, different paints and markers). I ended up purchasing a small selection of transparent glass paint, as it seems like the best (and only?) option to stransfer vibrant colors onto the surfaces I want to work with. I am also going to be using permanent black markers and acrylic paint for areas where the light needs to be fully blocked. 

As a side effect, the patterning is also becoming a bit different, as the glass paint has a very different texture to the materials I used before. I’m not entirely happy with how some shapes are changing, and I’m still practicing with the paint to get back closer to the previous patterns. 

I documented the most successful elements of the progress to date:

I think that the shadows themselves work quite successfully, and the colors are reflected even better than I hoped; they truly remind me of the stained glass windows I took inspiration from.

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My cabinet of curiosities

Following the old tradition of the “cabinet of curiosity”, I decided it was a very suiting medium to create a self-portrait. And so I fixed up an old but beautiful cabinet from my grandma’s heritage, and I curated an exhibition of myself. It’s funny how, despite all my intentions, I  ended up at the only place where I could create this collection: home, in Székesfehérvár. I didn’t want to be here, at least not now. I was supposed to be exploring a new corner of the world, meeting new people, getting inspired by new sights and beautiful nature, and instead, I’m stuck at my childhood home... In a way, this project was a good way to re-discover this place, the countless drawers and wardrobes, the million objects I kept from the seventeen years I lived here for. These are resources I can only access here, they don’t fit into my suitcase and I can’t buy them at a store. And they carry bits and pieces of my “self” in their history. 

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Progress on final project

I’ve been exploring two different approaches to the self-portrait: the shadow work and the cabinet of curiosity.

With the latter, I have been trying to find a way to somehow transform the objects from my past and infusing them with new meaning. The following came out of the brainstorming: crystallizing the items with alum salt or borax; and burning the whole cabinet on video. For some reason I lost interest in actually doing any of these things, so I focused on the other approach.

I am following the aesthetics of the paper-cut shadow work, but I want to go bigger, more interesting. I found a bunch of old glass panels in our yard, and I experimented with colors, different lights (both natural and artificial), and different surfaces to cast the shadows on. I like the idea of creating the pattern without overthinking it, letting my hand follow intuition. I am hoping that the patterns will represent the nature of my thinking, reference art styles (especially Hungarian folk art and embroidery) that had been influential to me, and be visually interesting. I am still uncertain of what to project the shadows on, so far I tried a white sheet, my body, different places in my home and garden.

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Artists I find intersting, pt. III.

Olafur Eliasson: Similarly to Neri Oxman, Eliasson also is often inspired by the intersections of nature and science. I love his environmental-themed works, as they are often on a grand scale and forcing the audience to think critically about human impact on the planet. (As a student of both Environmental Studies and Art, this is very inspiring to me). His work with light and color informs and relates to my current project.

Marela Zacarias: Zacarias’s work is huge, colorful and dancing on the edge between sculpture and painting. I see her work as a very interesting take on murals, and I especially like how she brings her research of ancient textiles to design her patterns and colors. I also discovered that she is a graduate of my school, Kenyon College!

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Artists I find inspirig, pt. II.

Jack Whitten:  I like his unique way of working of paint by creating mosaics of dried paint-slabs. It is interesting how he sees the little bits of paint as bits of information, and his thoughts on finding the "essence" of a person in forms and color are very relevant to our current self-portrait project, and actively inspired my current work. Also, he has a very humble presence, and describes himself as a “pretty average guy”, just , which I think is a valuable lesson for any art student.

https://youtu.be/GFVsd450nCU

 Kiwa H: He uses simple but strong imagery, as he tries to keep his art accessible to a wide audience. He shared an anecdote about returning home and showing work, then deciding that he wants to create art that his mother can understand. I like this sort of accessibility of an artwork. His work engages in the intersections of art & politics, and this contributes to an interesting discussion around the role of art in achieving peace and sustainability. I also like that the material history of his materials is an important part in his message.

https://youtu.be/OExAVzBX_sc

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Artists I find inspiring, pt. I.

I am developing a new habit: as I’m working, cooking, exercising, etc. I run art-related content on my screen. The idea is that if I’ll be spending roughly fourteen hours a day in front a of an electronic device, I might as well look at something more valuable than the same Facebook or Instagram feeds repeatedly. I discovered a new world of interesting content, and my Chrome home page now lists Youtube as the most frequented website. Sometimes I search for specific artists or exhibitions, but I want this process to be more about discovery than deeper research. The most interesting sources were the Art21 playlists of artist studio tours and discussions, Netflix’s show Abstract: The Art of Design and channels of museums such as the Tate, the Smithsonian and the Guggenheim.

Some of the artists that stood out:

 Neri Oxman: I was fascinated by the work she creates with a team in her lab at MIT. She connects design, science, nature and art in very elemental ways. She uses art to influence science, she uses science to influence art, she searches for art in science and science in art… She thinks about the environment in a very futuristic way, and I got the feeling that she actually lives in the next century.

Yayoi Kusama: Her dedication and life’s journey to establish herself as one of the most instantly recognizable contemporary artists working in installation is absolute life goals. She established a very clear, almost brand-like aesthetic, but she still manages to show new with every work. My favorite piece of her is Obliteration, in which she creates and environment that guides the audience to create the art work (white room, colorful dot stickers).

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Exploration of the self, 1.3

I shop, I eat, I dress myself, I acquire things from my environment. And then I produce (a lot of) waste. Whatever is not discarded, I build into my body, and it (sometimes even physically) becomes a part of me.

After thinking about the relationship between drawing and writing, I set out to create an inventory of growth. I turned to my trashcan and my shopping lists for inspiration.

I also re-created two shopping lists: one started by my mum, for a regular family grocery run, and one resembling my own shopping when I live alone.

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Exploration of the self, 1.2

I have a large collection of lanyards in my room. I used to collect them from everywhere I could: events I went to, my schools, competitions, the companies my parents worked at, vaations... The are fun items: colourful, useful, great souvenirs, and they all are marked to advertise their origin. 

When thinking about logos and banners, and how they can define someone’s identity in the context of the social institutions they are linked to, I was prompted to work with this collection. 

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Exploration of the self, 1.1

Drawing from instinct—I filled quite a few pages of my sketchbook doing quick, intuitive linework in the mornings, right after waking up, trying to keep the external influences on the minimum. I started to wonder about what other surfaces I could use to present these drawings, and I ended up playing around with shadows, as “negative drawings”. Shadows are very interesting to me in art-making. They kind of exist and don’t exist at the same time, they are dependent on the presence of light and a surface to be cast on.

The cut-outs on the large pieces of paper I had on hand (incidentally, the paper is from a pad of workspace table cover/planners, from my birthyear) created beautiful shadows, which I tried to move around and apply to different spaces in different light conditions. I documented the most successful instances:

The initial placement right above my workspace, at an early stage, more concerned with the cut-outs than the shadows:

And this is how it interacted with my working surface:

Moving to a larger place, and presenting the shadow on a large paper-roll, as if it was a fixed work:

In this placement the effect of the light was very fascinating. As the clouds moved around, and the afternoon light was filtered, the shadow kep changing form, from crystal-clear forms to a blob of gray. I recorded some short videos of this:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TQtGdypH1pWJUTcU3av5qFH_j4bGnIwr

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1zdfPqiZSU8JOn093f6HZKLwh-avnlWsS

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wjbAipwf-lGH-u-YcOzMho-SGEzpRoIh

Finally, I captured an ‘accidental’ shadow, after packing up the previous set-up:

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Exploration of the self

After the progress crit last week I continued my exploration of drawing as an flexible medium to capture different aspects of a self-portrait. While working on the graphite, realistic portraits the previous week was fun, and certainly an important step in my self-reflection, I tried to move towards abstraction in the new body of work. After sketching and brainstorming, I identified three main approaches to elaborate on:

-          Instinctive lines and shapes: I found that in the mornings, before opening my laptop or turning on the wi-fi on my phone I can sketch more “free” of influence. I try to look at this exercise as drawing from instinct—a meditative sort of process, during which I don’t plan or pre-pencil anything, I just let my hand do the thinking, and I fill the page organically. This captures something of my identity, the nature of my thought process, the more deeply engrained aesthetics.

-          Logos and banners as a form of identity: I continued to think of symbols, titles and motifs as descriptors of an identity. Flags, sigils and corporate logos have clearly defined meaning, and their combination in relation to a single person’s life is an interesting way of putting together a picture of the self’s place in society.

-          Net production of substance: There are concepts and calculations to describe the way living organisms absorb matter from their environment. A simple formula in environmental studies measure primary production in the food chain: NPP = GPP-R, where the difference of gross primary production and respiration give the net primary production, the physical growth of the producer. I tried to apply this in a way to reflect on myself: I shop, I eat, I dress myself, I acquire things from my environment. And then I produce (a lot of) waste. Whatever is not discarded, I build into my body, and it physically becomes a part of me.

After identifying these directions, I played around to see which applications of drawing could help me visualize my thoughts.

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ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS, 2020, Christchurch NZ

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Installation Art Show, 2019, Gambier US

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2020, Christchurch NZ