IZABELLA RETKOWSKA (PL)
Izabella Retkowska is an independent Polish artist who mainly focuses on creative photography, video art and animation. She uses her body as a medium for her multidisciplinary work.
Retkowska’s videos are unsettling and fascinating: the human body is distorted and processed into rapidly changing ornaments – an aesthetic of violence, an evil game.
The sequence of repetitive images of herself creates a hypnotic atmosphere that calls into the flow of emotional introspection. By using black and white colours in combination with challenging sound frequencies, she creates disturbing images full of contrasts. Fast-moving images alternating with quiet moments of pause invite the viewer to self-reflect and include them in their art. Her body appears distorted by the use of artificial elements alongside the representation of her changing positions. As with contemporary dance, a meditative state is achieved through instinctive movements that seem to bring your soul into harmony with the energy flows that pervade the universe.
The film sequences created by Retkowska are suggestive. Her works range up to disturbing emotions that remind the viewer of their hidden existence. Retkowska’s use of repetitive monochromatic objects is reminiscent of the disturbed subconscious that is exposed in the artist’s body.
Retkowska’s three video works Flow, Hybrid and Disorders feature monochromatic shots of her own body, often disrupted and translated into graphic form. Using disturbing and hypnotising images as well as haunting sound collages, she skillfully captures topical issues such as cloning and adrenaline rush.
The experimental photographer and filmmaker’s latest videos show people in extreme situations: behind what looks like a laboratory screen, we get a glimpse of a person’s dramatic inner world dominated by panic and defense; the element of water is questioned and a woman brought back to life. The enigmatic-existential images, underpinned by dramatic sounds, disturb and fascinate the viewer at the same time.
Her videos are dedicated to human behaviour between demarcation and aggression as well as excessive demands.
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HYBRID_FOR_B DISORDERS
