The Lingering Memory of Post-War Space with Jalena Tomasevic

Craft is defined as the making of an object by hand, and art as the application of a creative skill. Where exactly can the line be drawn between them? Particularly during our era of contemporary art in which appearance is based primarily on the conceptual, it could be said that aesthetics are its defining factor. Yet a craft can commonly be seen as a more literal depiction of an idea. Even this is speculation though, because in reality, there isn’t a line.

Steel as Medium

As argued by Montenegrin artist Jalena Tomasevic, the term ‘art’ also holds an obligation to fit within society’s definition of it. Her chosen material of steel breaks down these barriers. It poses questions of the longevity of artworks in the face of a material that ages with us as people. She paints over the material, creating imposing utopian structures that figures stolen from the pages of magazines experience. These figures are transferred from a familiar scene to a new space that exists in an alternative reality.

The Post-War Modernist City

Architects from the 1940s held a utopian vision of modernist cities born out of the rubble of their bombed remains during World War Two. This emphasized embracing the new alongside a whirlwind of upcoming post-war change. Those that experienced this turbulent time were uprooted by the devastation of war and entered a new modern space. The steel in Tomasevic’s works, therefore, comes to represent this cold, unfamiliar environment that people came to find themselves in.

Yet, despite the struggles of change, her scenes take on a dreamlike appearance. The blank space and modernist shapes of her paintings hold more characteristics of a memory, something that loses its detail over time. Her figures hold the poses of an alternative reality. They are reflected in the romantic positions made in the magazines they’ve travelled from.

Space as Imaginary

There is a sense of emptiness. This continues in the space that she exhibits her works in. She creates large boxes that encapsulate the audience in the imaginary spaces held in her paintings. They are immersed in the experience of those who saw change to their surroundings. They feel the disruption from place with meaning to that with none.

Space as Punishment

She goes so far as to describe them as ‘instruments of torture’ and sees violence within the abstract structures in her paintings. This is something that continues into her installations, particularly Object of Punishment. In this work a pool-like structure is literally punished by machinery to fit into the exhibition space. This is just as people were made to fit into a place in which they also they did not belong in. As a result, those witnessing the art also become punished as they are absorbed into the installation.

Art holds the power of allowing us to transcend language and experience the memories of others. Tomasevic chooses to do this through empty space that allows for her dominating steel structures to impose upon her subjects as well as her viewer. We feel the suppression that those felt who experienced the post-war changes to space. We are encapsulated by memories, becoming the part of the work ourselves.

Learn more about Jalena Tomasevic here.

Next up, Lebanon…