Installation artist Vessna Perunovich

Fig. 1. Vessna Perunovich.

Installation piece from Politics of Movement.

The Contemporary Art Centre of Montenegro hosted an exhibition called Politics of Movement from September 15 to October 1, 2016. When I first arrived at the exhibition I must admit to feeling rather disappointed, as I had expected to be able to see the work of a Serbian figural painter. However, I heard later from the curator of the museum that they change the exhibition floor every two weeks. My feelings of disappointment did not last, however. As I lingered in each room on the ground floor of the converted palace, the power of her work grew on me. Her work seduces you to puzzle out the intent of her work, causing you to bring your own experiences into reflection as you seek to decipher her message. As an adult who has lived in disparate countries, on at least four continents, I found her work powerfully evocative of my own struggles with moving, displacement and a hankering for a sense of home.

The exhibition was multifaceted in its communication of the impact of forced migration on individuals, as well as whole cultures. She uses diverse mediums from ink drawings, paintings, installations of man-made objects, performance, videography, sound tracks, sculpture, and calligraphy. The first visual impact one has of all of her works was that they were linked by her limited palette predominantly achromatic colors and cream, punctuated with the contrast color of a shockingly vibrant scarlet.

Fig. 2. Sketchbook notes from exhibition.

As a person caught between the history of her home country, former socialist Yugoslavia, and the country of her art education, Canada, she expresses a heart felt reaction to the emotions of displacement and the longings for a sense of home, safety and security. "The artist's personal experience is only a starting point for reflection on the different aspects of immigration status, cross-cultural issues and benefits, cultural nomadism, dangers of possessing economic power and the power to decide over the fate of others, problems of identity, male and female phenomena and their facets in contemporary society." (Center of Contemporary Art of Montenegro, 2016)

The lobby of the exhibition hosted a large installation of what appeared to be massive drops of blood dripping down from the sterile white ceiling into a convexly curved mirror with an ornamental frame around it (Fig. 1). The bowl appeared to float above the floor. Each drop of blood was made out of scarlet stretchy synthetic hand-sewn fabric weighted with sand. They were suspended by means of nylon fishing line and large fishing hooks. The hooks themselves seemed to be inducing the blood through their merciless grip of the fabric. This image is taken from the brochure as I was unable to photograph the actual artwork. In this case, the mirror was slightly more elaborate in the actual installation.

In the same lobby two different TV monitors could be seen each with a piece of performance art.

Fig. 3.Vessna Perunovich. Freeze frame from video footage.

Image from exhibition brochure

The one screen showed the artist in various scenic setting trying to pull away from large elastic tethers of the same scarlet fabric which appeared in the installation. The artist is straining with all of her might to pull in the opposite position to the horizontal stretch of fabric wrapped around her neat figure. In researching this footage I found that the artist has previous performed other pieces in a similar fashion, using 'three long, thick bands of elastic---blood-red against her black dress and white blouse" in her piece "I Hug the World and the World Hugs Me Back." (Dault, 2009)

The other monitor showed a person carrying a large white mattress through the streets of New York. This work is called "Uninhabitable New York", 2012 - 2013. It is a 16 minute long loop of footage showing the back of a person carrying a clean white mattress through varying busy city streets. The images give one a sense that this person is homeless, and has no place where they are allowed the freedom to lay down their mattress and rest.

From there I went into two interlinking rooms.

The first room contained a large section of chain link fence set at an angle to the largest white wall (Fig. 2). A projector shone footage onto the wall of a person in a dark coat walking in spiraling circles. They would spiral inwards and then back outwards. The shadows of the fence seemed to entrap the individual in an angular courtyard viewed from an oblique angle above the individual. In the background you could hear the sweet sounds of birds chirping freely in what you could imagine were surrounding trees. This sound was also interjected with the sharp punchy sound emanating from the flat screen TV monitor in the corner of the room. The footage on this screen showed a person monotonously punching holes into the blank pages of a large notebook with a sharp needle. The marks created appeared like Braille, although they were merely arranged in lines on the page. The speed of the punching started slowly and then became more and more frenetic.

The effect of the combination of installation and performance art footage was to make me feel trapped within a monotonous cycle of futile activity, while the beauty of the natural world, suggested by the sounds of the birds, was unattainable.

The inter leading room had a projector showing light playing off of a net curtain blowing against a barred window. The achromatic footage showed the left-hand side image to be longer and lower down the format than the right-hand side, suggesting a sense of power inequality. At times you could view a courtyard of an apartment black through the netting. Once again bird song filled the air and a female voice saying the words, "I love you" with varying intonations. The title of the piece was Finding Love. Sitting in front of this video and sound footage left you wondering who the woman was and who her lovers were. Was she a woman living a promiscuous life out of a deep longing for mutual attachment and love, or was it a person who was trapped in the life of a sex slave who would never actually find love? Although the scene is peaceful it leaves you feeling lonely and abandoned, despite the feeling that there was some one with the woman in the room.

Fig. 4. Vessna Perunovich. Image from exhibition brochure.

In the hallway, leading to the next set of rooms, there were a series of books displayed. I later discovered they were part of six different books that formed the work Series of Authored Books, 2015 - 2016. Their titles were Two Sides of the Story, Hotspots, Walls, Keep It Up, Bad News and Testaments. Each book was bound slightly differently in plain dark colored covers with cream blank pages in them. However, each book was treated slightly differently with scarlet red ink. The initial book I studied stood up with its pages all opened up so that it could be viewed from all sides. Each page was marked only my a smear of what appeared to be red blood (ink). Each smear was made at the same height on the page in a horizontal mark, but each mark appeared to be different in appearance. After studying this book, the next book grabbed my attention as each page was slashed through at the same height as the previous book (Fig.4.). Each slash was also trimmed in calligraphic smears of red ink. It gave one the idea that the author of the book had been slashed down in a blood carnage.

Fig. 5. Sketchbook notes.

In this same hallway, a sculpture called Continuity, 2000, was mounted against the wall. It consisted of children's books, the arms of a mannequin doll, a pair of old, soviet-looking, scuffed children's boots and a pair of adult boots. The feeling I was left with was that an adult and child were displaced and had trudged countless miles, scuffing up their shoes in the process, in a effort to find a place of refuge.

From this hallway, I went into the installation area of House of Exiles, 2004 - 2014. This multi-media installation contained a metal construction of a simple iron frame of a house (300 X 210 X 320 cm), the walls of which were defined with elastic bands, a 20-minute video loop and forest animal sounds. The video footage was of monochromatic scenes of varying ground cover: pebbles, clover, dandelions etc. With the shadows cast by the 'house', I was left with the feeling of entrapment. Despite the ability to escape the flexibility of the elastic walls, you are left with the sense that the individuals in the house have been forced to take political asylum in this isolated place of 'safety', yet the natural surroundings are suffocating them; and the way the video footage zooms in and out of focus, makes one think that they are losing their sanity and perspective on life. This room made me think of my own recovery from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. At times I was gifted with the opportunity of going to a vacation spot in a beautiful setting, but because of the anguish of my mental state at the time, I could not allow myself the luxury to enjoy the peacefulness of the setting.

Fig. 6. Sketchbook notes.

The installation that I found one of the most disturbing was Separated, 2010. This spatial installation consisted of a metal construction of the iron frame of a double-bed (200 X 90 X 110cm) . Red stretchy threads of thin fabric which had been sewn together to form calligraphic strands extended from the head to the foot of the iron frame, looping around it to form a continuous loop. These thread were, however, straining under the weight of a metal two-handed saw. The crudeness of the jagged teeth of the saw against the thin red cords, left the feeling of a gruesome event having taken place to defile this marriage bed. In the corner of the room a tiny picture framed in white showed a drawing of a figure hiding in a box with a red smear dominating the right-hand side. The idea communicated seemed to be that this innocent figure was observing this violent scene. This work brought to mind the many bedrooms that have been invaded by soldiers of opposing factions, where men and women are cut down, or raped as part of their violent subjugation ploys. It truly was disturbing as it brought to mind media footage that currently fills the news. I found a write up about a similar work, or it could be the same work under a different title in The Coast.

Perunovich says that the work was created as former-Yugoslavia was breaking apart. "Married couples from different ethnic origins were splitting up, neighbours were turning against each other," she says of the time. She figured the bed (the place where we are born, spend a third of our lives and often die) was an intimate setting in which to explore these ideas. It's no coincidence that the fabric bands look like blood. "Blood ties can't be severed so easily." -  (Dault, 2009)

Still Life, 2010 - 2013, the installation set up in the adjoining room consisted of different arrangements of metal goblets with scarlet, stretchy, sand-filled fabric forms seeming to ooze from one goblet into the next. These objects contrasted with the two ledges and the white table upon which they were strategically placed. It left you wondering why the contents of the goblets had been poured out and why the forms were so flaccid and yet not liquid as one would expect in a goblet.

It seemed that as I moved from one room to another, each room's experience added to the previous one leaving me increasingly impacted by my own connections and interaction with the pieces. The next room I saw contained the installation Bloodline. Two large d2 wooden spools were attached on either side of the larger wall, connected by a long looping length of tracing paper tape. Calligraphically written in a fashion of a line on an echogram, ran a red ink line. This long strip of "ticker-tape" looped down from the spools, circled a few times on the floor, draped over a stripped, cream painted, wooden chair, and then furled its way back up to the spool on the other side of the chair. The piece left me wondering if someone had been hospitalized, institutionalized, or was undergoing some for of brain washing.

The next room contained the work Moments of Exceptional Importance, 2016. If I had viewed this piece in isolation to the other works, I do not think it would have had much of an impact on me. This corporate work contained a wall of 57 identically framed, intimate red ink drawings each 16 X 13cm. Each drawing was beautifully drawn using well placed figures in varying poses each with scarlet ink highlighting the intent of the drawing in some manner. The pictures varied from innocuous looking poses, to scenes of cold-blooded murder, with pools of blood. The figures are of varying cultures and nationalities, helping to broaden the context of the exhibition to showing suffering, displacement and loss on a global scale.

In the corner of the rooms were proverbial sayings written on blackboards, hastily crossed out with more realistic slogans written under them.

The final room I went into had an old cream canvas and wood stretcher (cot) - a stretcher from a good 50 years ago - lying upside down on top of the sharp form of a elongated box. One is left wondering who slept on the stretcher and why it is now empty, tossed heartlessly on top of what could be an old trunk. This room also contained a disturbing large tray of dirt, with two little children's boots partially embedded in the sand. The tray looked similar to an unmarked grave site with a simple concrete edge. The shoes turned upside down in the dirt leaves one thinking that some violent event has snuffed out the life of this child.

The overall effect of the works of Vessna Perunovic was totally unexpected. I left the exhibition awed by the power of the artist to evoke in me memories of displacement, and heavy with the reminder that millions of people are displaced and have lived through experiences more horrific than I could ever even contemplate fully. What I found incredibly interesting was how my affinity with her works grew as I allowed myself to connect with the subject. It is true what was quoted in the accompanying brochure: "The final result of the artist's exploration cannot be entirely taken in without taking into account the complex relationship and interaction between the work and its audience." Her work was truly interactive and inspirational. What is amazing to me is that there is so little about her on the internet, and yet she is such a topical and talented artist.

Illustrations

Figures 1,3 & 4. Photographs taken from Center of Contemporary Art of Montenegro, 2016. Vessna Perunovich Politics of Movement. Podgorica: Digital Print Centar, Podgorica. Dault, M., 2009.

Works Cited

Center of Contemporary Art of Montenegro, 2016. Vessna Perunovich Politics of Movement. Podgorica: Digital Print Centar, Podgorica. Dault, M., 2009.

Vessna Perunovich’s tight squeeze . [Online]
Available at: http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/vessna-perunovichs-tight-squeeze/Content?oid=1155628
[Accessed 16 October 201