Ghostlights

PHOTOGRAPHY, 2021
CHROMALUX, FRAMED, 40x60 CM 120x80CM

All photographs were taken at night, but the darkness is broken by mysterious points of light. The photographs were processed using the Chromaluxe technique, a sublimation print on aluminum that particularly expresses the strong light-dark contrasts. A jungle or a motorcycle parking lot in Thailand serve as a setting, as does a dune landscape in Greece, a forest in Lower Austria, or various locations in Vienna where criticism of civilization is ignited (such as an ammunition store or a gas station).

While the artist was initially behind the camera and the points of light in the beginning followed the outlines of the human body, Borjana Ventzislavova also performed in front of the camera in the course of the work, the distribution of the points of light thus becoming increasingly free and detached from the outlines of the human figure. The mysterious energy emanating from the points of light, which buzz like ghosts through the most diverse places, seems on the one hand to refer to the original meaning of “photography” (the term is composed of the two ancient Greek words photós, light, and graphein, to write, paint, draw).  In Borjana Ventzislavova‘s work, however, light, which equally determines our vision and the ability and possibility of imaging, also becomes a representative of mankind, the sun, which simultaneously nourishes and burns. In the form of a cold light it also stands for the technical devices that surround us every day and that has so permanently alienated us from nature…(Dr. Lisa Ortner-Kreil)

Ghostlights

PHOTOGRAPHY, 2021
CHROMALUX, FRAMED, 40x60 CM 120x80CM

All photographs were taken at night, but the darkness is broken by mysterious points of light. The photographs were processed using the Chromaluxe technique, a sublimation print on aluminum that particularly expresses the strong light-dark contrasts. A jungle or a motorcycle parking lot in Thailand serve as a setting, as does a dune landscape in Greece, a forest in Lower Austria, or various locations in Vienna where criticism of civilization is ignited (such as an ammunition store or a gas station).

While the artist was initially behind the camera and the points of light in the beginning followed the outlines of the human body, Borjana Ventzislavova also performed in front of the camera in the course of the work, the distribution of the points of light thus becoming increasingly free and detached from the outlines of the human figure. The mysterious energy emanating from the points of light, which buzz like ghosts through the most diverse places, seems on the one hand to refer to the original meaning of “photography” (the term is composed of the two ancient Greek words photós, light, and graphein, to write, paint, draw).  In Borjana Ventzislavova‘s work, however, light, which equally determines our vision and the ability and possibility of imaging, also becomes a representative of mankind, the sun, which simultaneously nourishes and burns. In the form of a cold light it also stands for the technical devices that surround us every day and that has so permanently alienated us from nature…(Dr. Lisa Ortner-Kreil)

>> INSTALLATION VIEWS