Ivana Stojaković's visual imagination "painted" by photography

Endless creativity forced the Serbian artist Ivana Stojaković (33) to produce unique photographic works. The unique effects achieved by the technique of "painting" with a camera (multiple exposures) were presented at an art photography exhibition called "Scenting" at the Bentara Budaya Gallery in Jakarta, which was opened by the photojournalist of the Antara news agency, Oscar Matuloh, on Wednesday (19/8) evening. 

"Ivana's photos represent a new way of seeing. Photography is not always used as a recording tool. Photos are also used as an experimental medium. Technical issues are not important in her work," said Oskar. 

Bentara Budaya Gallery Executive Director Efik Muliadi wrote in the exhibition catalog: "Ivana skillfully uses photography to convey her artistic ideas and concepts, transforming what should be obvious from the camera's eye into scenes that can be stunning, unique, memorable or emerging from a dream, feeling familiar, but at the same time refusing to be recognized as part of everyday life.”Seeing it only as a work of photography," continues Efik, "will give us beauty, and if we look behind the displayed images, we will be enriched by the adventure of reading signs, images, exciting interpretations and feeling the power of poetry." 

There are not many works in the exhibition, only three titles. Namely "Fun fair" (consists of 12 photos), "Self-Portrait" (about 20 photos in four separate sections) and "Cage" (five photos). 

Looking at Ivana's photos, the question arises as to why several photos are grouped into series and subsumed under one title. If in rhyme, repeating a word can mean affirmation; it could be the same in Ivana's work. Several photographs mutually strengthen, confirm, and enrich the narrative with numerous possibilities of interpretation. In the photo series "Cage", for example, in one photo there is the main subject, a bird, while in the other four photos the bird has disappeared; only the bars of the cage remain dominant. It is one visual description with conceptualized imagination. 

According to Chajadi Devant, a lecturer at the Indonesian College of Arts (STSI) Bandung, Ivana's works are the result of structured transcription, present from verbal and non-verbal constructions, dreams and wakefulness, which are then reduced to visual content that can be captured by the eye and the soul. 

Yurnaldi
Art and film critic