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MULTIVERSE

or (Take) All Of Me

psychical cosmology.

reshuffling of our collective memory

The snapshots of our fluid reality.

 

"The multiverse (or meta-universe) is the hypothetical set of possible universes, including the universe in which we live. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, and the physical and psychical laws and constants that describe them.

The various universes within the multiverse are called "parallel universes", "other universes" or

"alternative universes".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

'The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.' Carl Yung

"In reality, however, every ego, so far from being a unity is in the highest degree a manifold world, a constellated heaven, a chaos of forms, of states and stages,of inheritances and potentialities." Hermann Hesse , SteppenWolf

 

techniques:

Digital composed animated video image projection

digital graphics,

drawings,

ink and oil paintings.

Nothing Compares To You_Nina Sumarac.jpg

 Inspiration comes in many forms and indeed through various sources none of which, as I am consistently reminded through my work, are entirely synchronic nor operate within a vacuum. The very nature of daily global and biopolitical narratives, which form the fabric of our consciousness are in a sense revisitations of ‘past’ wounds and glories set to contemporary melodies/cacophonies. These evolutionary overlaps, which articulate the multifaceted nature of the human condition and our socio-cultural relations, have enthralled me to the point of deep fascination generating a will to construct works that act as grounds for hope and optimism. This meta-narrative, which ripples throughout these captivating projects, has come about by exploring these synergies within different mediums over time. As the following overview makes clear, the journey of residual effects is ongoing and evolutionary gaining momentum through the provocation of unchartered frontiers.

 

In the series entitled ‘Take all of Me” I have sought to explore concept of the universe as an expanse comprised of multiverses, in which all lived activity and experience converge in a way that defies the laws of time and space. Taking this intellectual provocation as a point of departure, each piece articulates the idea that cultural, social and political anthropology exists and develops within evolutionary multiverses throughout history. The works compress this organic oeuvre by focussing on its cellular arrangement depicted through a collage of fragments taken from images that have dominated a community of thought during various epochs throughout history. This visual praxis celebrates the complex and fruitful dynamism of multiverses as a continuation of ideas that resonate across time, whilst offering an insight into how the fabric of identity is constructed as a meta-narrative of the schism between belonging and alienation, attachment and detachment. The resulting representations are in as such cultural products that unify anxieties surrounding postmodern concepts of identity in a bid to isolate the essence of a seemingly simpler story; that we belong to no one and everyone simultaneously within a liminal multiverse. 

 

The significance of this essence and landscape lies in its narrativization of what we can call ‘true reality’: an ongoing collection of individual realities that interact and shape each other.  As Carl Yung said: “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” (reference). Multiverses are thus streams of malleable energy flow, influenced by all such interactions, bound in this case by the cognitive and emotional interaction between creator and observer. Defining [hi]story within a single word or picture, is thus rendered an impossible and unfeasible undertaking. There is no fixed human nature/reality; like it or not we are all cross-breeds and our minds and actions reflect personal realities. Furthermore, no matter what our origins, our human DNA is constantly evolving due to environmental, technological, cultural, political, economical, emotional and personal circumstances. Identity and reality are neither maintained nor achieved through a single intrinsic or extrinsic definition, as our cellular transcript is diachronic, not static. Everything is a unique combination of everything; an important reminder during these turbulent times of shifting nations and mass migration. We are many and we are one.

          

Nina_Sumarac_2016_mixmedia_50x70cm_3700

Nothing Compares to You, 2016

Wins 1st Prize in Digital Art at The LYNX Prize 2016

The Associazione Culturale IL SESTANTE,

Trieste - Ajdovščina - Zagreb - Livorno

 

CICA Museum, South Korea, 2017

CICA 미술관은 , Czong Institute for Contemporary Art

 

October Salon 2017 at Pavilion Cvijeta Zuzuric, Belgrade

2019 Work purchased by State Gallery of Contemporary Cyprus Art

 

 

"Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange"


WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Tempest
(1611–12)

 

This piece began as a research entry for the Irish Biennial… Although the artist missed the deadline, having become so engrossed in the process of collating seemingly disparate images of Ireland’s rich history into a unified collage, the piece evolved regardless. Ironically, the work continues to capture this constant state of becoming in a way that defies stable interpretations and comparisons but creates a space for viewers to develop their perspectives. This open-endlessness highlights the tensions between inner and outer landscapes and truth and possession, which shaped the artist’s process and inspiration in terms of selecting images from open-access digital media while navigating her perspective.

Nothing Compares to You

is digitally composed of fragments different photographs and world famous paintings. Final work in oil, 300 x 220 cm, year 2016-19

References:

William John Leech (1881-1968), A Convent Garden, Brittany, c. 1913,  Oil on canvas, 132 x 106 cm; Potato Planters, Jean-François Millet, about 1861; La Tempesta, Giorgione, c. 1508, oil on canvas; River Landscape with Horseman and Peasants, about 1658-60, Aelbert Cuyp, Landscape Photography, Faroe Islands, Denmark; Poulnabrone dolmen , portal tomb in the Burren, Neolithic period, County Clare, Ireland,; "Storks" Joseph Chełmoński, 1900, Poland ; Irish Fairy Tales illustration , by William Butler Yeats; Brian Boru sculpture outside Chapel Royal, Dublin, Dublin Castle; Frederic William Burton's 'The Meeting on the Turret Stairs'; Daniel Maclise A Scene from 'Undine'; The Little Mermaid, illustrations  by Edmund Dulac; MY DELIGHT By Gerard Dillon; The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin by Jan van Eyck 1435; Babie Lato by Józef Marian Chełmoński: Francis Joseph O'Meara - Autumnal Sorrows, 1878; Paul Henry Ireland 1876-1958 The Fairy Thorn; Roderic O'Conor (1860-1940) – Coastal Scene, Evening or Turbulent Sea , Brittany, c.1898-1899; “Economic Pressure” le Seán Keating, 1923.; Goose Girls 1885 by Sir John Lavery; “The Goose Girl”, 1922, painting by William John Leech; photo of Yugoslavian partisans  dance and sing in II world war;

 

No matter our origins, our DNA is constantly evolving due to environmental, cultural, political, economical, emotional and personal circumstances. There is no fixed human nature like it or not; we are all cross-bred and our minds and actions reflect the realities of the global village. When we finally accept our fluid identity; when we realize the whole is vastly greater than the sum, our collective love, potential and dynamism can and will transform the conflicts of today into tomorrow's Utopia.

 

 

 

"Painting “Treasure Island” is a visual choreography of sprawling eras, cultural smelting, sociological amalgamation (or lack thereof), political indignation, tragedies, parodies and especially ‘racial’ blending. The imagery is an anthropologist's delight; leaping off the canvas with interplays, innuendo and insight.

History, herstory or our story are all pseudo affirmations of events and the fragmented significance ‘given’ to each story or version. They are not pseudo in the sense of lies but in the sense of deception or better yet cover-ups.

Nina in her latest ‘recreation’ is undressing history by dressing it in the foliage of so many smooth or awkward representations. Each part of the collage suggests a moment, story or era from the uninhibited sexuality of ancient times, through the march of conquerors and cultural tides, up to the present newly arrived presences on ‘our’ colourful rock in the sea.
The artist re-creates a meta-narrative that sheds the meaningless artifice of pseudo-truth and offers a coat of so many colours or stories which is initially overwhelming, almost nonsensical. This discomfort is even more pronounced if one associates history with identity (as if we are the simple sum of our past). The nonlinear, melodramatic story of who, what, when and why is lost to the ‘naked’ chaos of fragmented stories, each one a leaf from another forest of stories. It is only when we surrender the search for a specific or familiar identity that we can intuit the sublime beauty and subtle complexity of our poly-story.
Identity just like history, Nina’s work suggests, is an organic fiasco
not only because it won’t conform to fashion but because it dreams of a fashion-free fashion.”
Costa Constantinides, MSc Counseling Psychology  & BA political science

 

 

Treasure Island, MULTIVERSE

Honorable Mention of the Jury  - T.I.N.A. 2015 

Lisbon-Los Angeles-San Paulo 

Treasure Island, MULTIVERSE

Honourable Mention of the Jury  - T.I.N.A. 2015 

Lisbon-Los Angeles-San Paulo 

Treasure Island, True Blood, 2017 MULTIVERSE

 

Social Art Award 2017, Berlin, Germany

Salon D 'Automne, En Plo Gallery/The Old Powerhouse, Paphos

18th Asian Art Biennial 2018

Shilpakala Academy Dhaka, Bangladesh

The “look like” collage technique emphasizes our island's complex history, geography, internationalism, tragedy and beauty.

The human figures are created from cross-cultural icons and represent the major ethnic groups living on the island.

The  background is composed of fragments from different paintings to imply the ethnic distinctions: Uros Predic – Kosovo Maiden (1919); Muhammad Yusuf 17th century illustrated Shahnameh -The battle of Suhrab and Rustam; Persian - Hunting with a falcon, Safavid dynasty (1502-1736); Hieronymus Bosch _ Garden of Delights (1490-1510) ; Chinese Painting of Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1840); Henry Ossawa Tanner - Sand Dunes at Sunset (1886); Olive Orchard by Van Gogh (1889); Sandro Botticelli - The Birth of Venus (1486); Sandro Botticelli - Dekameron (1350–53); erotic images from ancient Greek pottery; and Cyprus ancient figurines.

 

Kokino Kiklo, MULTIVERSE

Kokino Kiklo

Oil on canvas, 150 x 110 cm  

Year 2018

Exhibition:

18th Asian Art Biennial Bangladesh 2018,

Shilpakala Academy Dhaka, Bangladesh

Owned by the private collector. Italy

Humanity is shaped by interactions spanning a chronology of lifetimes, blending complex states of being.

This narrative of epochs is a residual discourse, which trickles down from one generation to another as an inheritance that echoes the past within the present in partial forms. Lived experience is thus subject to a meta-narrative of multiverses, marking our understanding of ourselves and others accordingly. ‘Residual Tongues’ emphasizes this dialogue of fractured totality and its survival, through a series of uncanny reflections that are held together within a tapestry of mutable forms on the cusp of evolution. The paradoxical figure of stability governing this liminal transition at the centre of the piece articulates this dynamic negotiation. Material and spiritual negotiation is nurtured by traditions, traumas, identity, belonging, displacement, and change.  This archaic praxis of human evolution blurs the boundaries between beauty and disturbance, pleasure and pain, bringing to light the irresolute tensions of an exquisite nomadic experience that is synonymous with the inquisitions of contemporary culture. The central figure of this piece vocalizes a hopeful message as she works through the cyclical tensions of love and pain encapsulating the meaning of the title.  Κόκκινο Κύκλο in Greek means Red Cycle, which refers to a repetitive painful experience that determines a willingness to believe in the sublime human power to overcome, grow and hope with every birth and death.

 

NCTY II

oil and ink on canvas 

size:150x113cm, year 2016

 

 finalist  at The 2nd  LYNX Prize 2016

The Associazione Culturale IL SESTANTE

 

2016, OSTEN World Gallery of Drawing, Skoplje

Nothing Compares to You II, 2016, oil an
detail-10.jpg

“In The Garden Of Eden” 2014

Oil on canvas, Diptych 120x180 cm ( each part  90x120)

 

exhibited at "Lumière de Paix" 2014

at UN Palais des Nations, Geneva,  Switzerland


FRESH! 2016: The Modern Portrait, July-August 2016
at JanKossen Contemporary Gallery, New York

 

owned by a private collector, Brussels, Belgium

"Vibrant, honest and holistic; Ms Nina's image is a sang froid homage to the polymorphic and wonderful diversity of our species. The richly disparate collection of cultural and body fragments into a dynamic whole is a fascinating act of reverence for our superb distinctiveness on every level; as if to say “All so different yet all so gracefully the same."

“In the Garden of Eden” is a heartfelt request to be accepted in our glorious complexity, to be loved in our quilt-patched nature; a nature that is sewn from the criss-cross stitches of history, culture, environment, power, circumstance, age and genetics. The challenge is understanding how our deep longing for total acceptance translates into a readiness to offer a total embrace.

Strife can thus be seen as a failure to comprehend the universality within the unique; harmony, ergo, is the appreciation of our differences as reminders of our similarities. The woman and man via their flirt express an urge to 'unification' which can only genuinely occur if there is authentic acceptance.

Gerald Marks song sings “Your goodbye Left me with eyes that cry” and infers, I cannot exist only within what is approved; “so please... take all of me”.

Costa Constantinides, MSc Counseling Psychology  & BA political science

 

 

Paramythia,

MULTIVERSE, 2017

Nina Sumarac Jablonsky

Oil, ink and collage on canvas, size 100x180cm

An exhibition honouring hundred-year anniversary

 from the death of Cyprus epic poet, Vasilis Michaelides

Curator: Dr Nadia Anexegorou

Limassol Municipal Art Gallery

10.11.-31.01.2017

 

 

"When the secret winds began their blowing

And the clouds in secret gathered over Turkey,

Rainclouds that gathered from all four corners

Until the weather started mounting,

Then Cyprus had, as others had, her secret-

she had her share of the impending storm.

When lightning flashed in the lands of Morea

And everywhere the sound of thunder was heard,

when all things blazed, at last, both land and sea,

Then Cyprus had. as others had, her sorrow....."

 

part of the poem by Vassilis Michaelides

The Ninth Of July 1821 or The Song Of Kyprianos

 

 

History is polyphonous. Every nation has her sorrows, as Vasilis Michaelides says.

 National sorrow, pain, and suffering that originate from contemporary and anachronistic ideologies about heritage, identity, and heroism are transplanted from one generation to the next. This collective praxis takes root in memory and runs through the veins of lineage as a residual and cyclical discourse inciting fresh pain, fear and anger drawing a parallel between past and present traumas. Time and time again, in near and distant lands, there is always blood that is shed and mothers that cry.

As long as we do not forgive, we will always be caught up in a relentless cycle of repression, repetition and pain.

 

References: a poem by Vassilis Michaelides The Ninth Of July 1821 or The Song Of Kyprianos and the poem The Woman of Chios; Photo of the missing soldiers of Cyprus, 1974; Map of Nicosia in Cyprus, 1597 by the Venetian Giacomo (Jacomo) Franco; part of the image of The Cypriot girl dressed in traditional costume from a 1-Pound banknote, 1997; Fresco depicting the hanging of Archbishop Kyprianos and the beheading of monks by Turks in July 1821, Kykkos Monastery, Cyprus.; ‘A Cyprian Maid,’ from John Thomson’s Through Cyprus with a Camera in the Autumn of 1878; Panagia Paramythia of the Sad and Unjust (1500 AD) - Peristerona Paphos Panagia; La Gioconda by Leonardo da Vinci; IIWW photo of partisans dancing holding hands

 

Nina Sumarac Jablonsky (Νίνα Σουμάρατζ Γιαμπλόνσκι)
Κύπρος - Παναγία Παραμυθία των θλιβομένων και των αδικουμένων, 2017
ζωγραφική, κολλάζ, μικτή τεχνική
Συλλογή της καλλιτέχνιδος

κείμενο της Δρ Νάντια Αναξαγόρου

"Σε μια πολυσυλλεκτική σύνθεση με λάδι, μελάνι και κολλάζ σε καμβά, η Σέρβα καλλιτέχνις, Νίνα Σουμάρατζ, προσωπογραφεί την Κύπρο ως Παναγία Παραμυθία των θλιβομένων και των αδικουμένων, με έμπνευσή της την ομώνυμη εικόνα της Παναγίας του 1500 μ.Χ. από την Περιστερώνα της Πάφου. Αντικαθιστά το κεκοσμημένο με φυτικά μοτίβα φωτοστέφανο, το άγιο πέπλο και το μαφόριο, με τον ανθοστόλιστο κεφαλόδεσμο και τη χαρακτηριστική ενδυμασία της Κυπριοπούλας, που απεικονίζεται σε χαρτονόμισμα της λίρας του 1997, παρεμβάλλοντας επίσης μοτίβα από το φόρεμα άλλης μιας νεαρής Κύπριας, του τέλους της τουρκοκρατίας, από φωτογραφία που έβγαλε το 1878 ο John Thomson, τιτλοφορώντας την «Cyprian Maid». Βαθιές ρίζες ελιάς αναφύονται στο άνω μέρος της σύνθεσης και περιβάλλουν προστατευτικά την Κύπρο στους δύσκολους καιρούς που διέρχεται, καθώς «μες στους ανέμους τους κρυφούς είσεν το μερτικόν της./ Τζ’ αντάν εφάνην η ’στραπή εις του Μοριά τα μέρη/ τζ’ εξάπλωσεν, τζ’ ακούστηκεν παντού η πουμπουρκά της,/ τζ’ ούλα ’ξιλαμπρατζίσασιν, τζαι θάλασσα τζαι ξέρη/ είσεν, σγοιαν είχαν ούλοι τους, τζ’ η Κύπρου τα κακά της.» Στην εντός των τειχών Λευκωσία, που αποδίδεται ως χάρτης του 1597 από τον Ενετό Giacomo Franco, εκτυλίσσεται το μακελειό της 9ης Ιουλίου. Σε μια συγχώνευση τραγικών ιστορικών στιγμών αιματοχυσίας, οι απρόσωποι Οθωμανοί δήμιοι του 1821 γίνονται οι Τούρκοι εισβολείς του 1974 και οι εικόνες αναδιπλώνουν τον Αρχιεπίσκοπο Κυπριανό και τους Μητροπολίτες, από τοιχογραφία της Μονής Κύκκου, πλάι στις μανάδες των αγνοουμένων και τους αιχμαλώτους του Αττίλα. Η γυναικεία φιγούρα που χύνει το πικρό δάκρυ της συσσωρευμένης θλίψης και του ακατάπαυστου πόνου απολήγει διφορούμενη και μυστήρια με τις ποικίλες απολήξεις και διακλαδώσεις χεριών, δανεισμένες από πολλαπλές πηγές, όπως τη Gioconda του Leonardo da Vinci ή την Βρεφοκρατούσα ανώνυμου Κύπριου αγιογράφου. Είναι η Κύπρος και η Παναγία, η Χιώτισσα, η κάθε γυναίκα και η κάθε χώρα που αδικείται. "

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