Art Criticism and formal analysis: Paper Filigree of Viktorija Janić

The newest accomplishments of visual artist Viktorija Janić could be described as a successful continuation of her creative path in the sense of reception of new tendencies in the creative process of paper art as a plastic material within the paper filigree technique, one of the disciplines of applied art. At the very beginning, it could be said that her existing pieces display a synthesis of her talent, her attitude towards life and the world we are surrounded by in its widest sense, as she states herself: “When something is a part of our DNA and is considered a natural gift, then the adequate usage of that gift becomes our moral obligation. However, I never thought of art as an obligation – but as of my essential need to express my vision of essence.” Her works carry the signature of a figurative choice within 3D sculptures-installations, unlike spatial installation, which rely on single or several anchoring points, as the framework of the crucially installed project. The diversity of her thematic choices are sculptures – human figure, animal shows of mythological background, birds, flora, architecture, the golden ratio, the Fibonacci number present in numerous physical, chemical and biological phenomena as well as cosmic phenomena based on the harmony of cosmic laws.

The designer manipulation of colorful paper, seen from the perspective of an external visual effect, is defined by the aesthetic arrangement of configuration of individual components whose final aim is to constitute and shape the envisioned project of paper filigree according to the ready-made plan. The formal visual construction of elements of paper filigree is affirming the specific applied media concept of creative manipulation of decoratively designed strip-like shapes formed in the technological process of bending, folding, wrapping and pressing. The finally organized thematic structure of such tridimensional filigree sculpture-installation is achieved by gluing strip-like elements fixed upon a wooden or plastic surface, and placed within a glassed-in wooden box as an integral art project of specific plastic and aesthetic visualization. All these elements are integrated into an organized spatial “horror vacui” space with their fauvistic intensity of colored strips as its main building blocks. Such approach of creative assembly upgrades the visual impression up to the actual art form.

Viktorija’s filigree work does not simply look for new forms via various thematic content, but by intellectually shaping the primary idea she strives towards giving the hidden and extended meaning to the very form, having in mind our collective awareness and, from the historical perspective, the importance of paper in the world culture and art. Within such intellectual transformation of visual content her works can no longer be observed as a plain reconstruction of optical reality but rather as a “narrative installation” beset with a layered spiritual, existential and mythological symbolism. In the process of paper filigree materialization of 3D structures, Viktorija perceives the creative process highly personally, with the belief that art is all-encompassing, that it permeates both the visible and the invisible reality in most various aspects – via symbolical, metaphorical and metaphysical dimensions, which adds a complex conceptual context to her activity. Such transfer of ideas, emotions, energy and multilayered meanings can be read from her works’ titles, as they are incorporated deep within them via the secrecy of the existence of the spirit and the matter. To give you an overview, some of them are as follows: Bee dance, Unicorn, The blow of the ocean, Sea symphony, Queen’s pathway to the sash, Labyrinth, Peacock, Kitty and the tomcat – hypnosis of a love, Swans, Adam and Eve – the ancestral sin, Sea world, Sunflower, Gingerbread, Gračanica monastery, Seahorse the sailor, Bicycle. Hence, although at first glance these sculptures-installations give out the impression of mere decoration, at the same time their ideative informative semantics present their multilayered inner and outer side which, simultaneously, express Viktorija’s inner and outer beings and her perception and interpretation of the world and its essence. Via her creative process of transparent assembly of paper filigree she has enabled this discipline to evolve into a sublimed form of modern tendencies in the domain of activities of applied art. The emergence of Viktorija Janić on Serbian art scene is a small yet invaluable contribution to the original innovation and the expansion of program conceptions of applied disciplines of sculpting and paintings-installations, as one of elements of art.

Mile Ignjatović, art historian