Weight of Weightlessness - Rhimes & Rhythms of Paper

Ivana Stojakovic ... is a multi-media artist: installation, photography, performance, paper (including handmade paper) and printmaking are some of the media she regularly explores and delves into to create her artworks that often have a certain grace of intensity. Ivana Stojakovic’s works are permeated with a lyrical tension and her works are personal yet layered to allow our imagination to roam freely. 

Ivana Stojakovic’s What Do You think? Are Angel’s Wings Heavy or Light?  is stated in the form of a question and can perhaps be restated as: Can we bear the weight of lightness? And if yes, are we willing to? 

Ivana Stojakovic starts with close to nothing, just plain paper. Then she prints with a small plate – much smaller in size than the paper – using a manual printing press, which is heavy labor. She started this process with black ink, approximately one hundred times she printed with black ink. Then she continued with white ink, layer upon layer, over and over again, hundreds of times. And she does all this without having the generally understood ‘proper’ printmaking techniques. The pentimenti – visible traces of earlier prints beneath layers of ink – effect in the impression as if she’s repenting or chanting. However, like in meditation, thoughts can wonder and go roundabout causing a sudden return of the repressed. Printing layer upon layer, she allows mutations – even deviations are embraced – to become part of her work. And she works without a pre-established idea where the work will take her, but she aims to attain harmony (both in her work and in herself) and rhythm. 

The installation is displayed in such a way that we can move in and around this work, so we can relate ourselves – emotionally, sensually – to the gritty texture. And the sheer physicality of lightness can work on us so we could become aware of a metaphysical realm or third space: our bodies, the installation and something altogether else: the gravitational pull of the transcendental? However, after the conclusion of this exhibition, Ivana Stojakovic will continue printing onto the paper sheets of the installation, perhaps until the paper disintegrates into nothingness.

Roy Voragen

Curator of the exhibition "Weight of Weightlessness - Rhimes & Rhithms of Paper"