Artist’s Statement
This series of abstract paintings forges artistic connections between old and new cultural narratives through storytelling by interweaving the known with the unknown and the imagined, whether Serbian, Canadian, or multicultural. The visual language explores the intersection of abstract expressionism and contemporary constructivism in collage-like compositions. The themes combine nostalgia for the naivety of Yugoslav utopia with present concerns in Western Canada: its complicated history and endangered future.
The paintings in the Eternal Domicile (2022-2024) series are titled after iconic poetry verses by Serbian poet Desanka Maksimović. The metaphor of fragmentation conveys the loss of connection with one's original homeland and the rebuilding of a life in a new place.
Halcyon Days (2023) series explores the emotions associated with the broader concept of home, its complexity, and the layering of memories and hopes for the future.
“The country we call home, the country we used to call home, and the country we dream to call home are all very distinct and disparate places. It is the result of a productive schizophrenia: we are in all of them at once, a ravishing sensation but one tempered by the slow, sobering devastation of never being in any one entirely.”
Slavs and Tatars Art Collective