JOHANNA HULLÁR (HU, 1989)
Residency period: August 2023
johannahullar.ch
In my practice I often reflect on the question of possible futures, the conflicts of our time, as environmental and social issues, and the future of the medium of photography. My residency project “Mimicry” is inspired by how seeing something in something else affects our mind and worldview. How objects resemble nature? How we are always looking for similarities and a connection, a nexus, a unifying reason to objects? How can objects develop characters and capacity for mimicry, and while their meanings are constantly challenged as their visual aspect changes?
During my residency, I began by collecting plants and natural elements from the garden and food market, experimenting with processes like freezing and crystallizing. Mixing these natural elements with plastics and collected items, I created abstract mise en scènes and corrupted still-life landscapes.
As I delved deeper into the process, the combinations became more abstract, eventually returning to the garden, their natural environment. The scenes were captured between plants, stones, and water. I started to mix disciplines of still life and landscape photography with video and eventually time based sculptures. I froze in ice “capsule” arrangements, creating a new entity, a mini-organism, nature more – frozen in time.
At La Becque, in addition to producing new artworks, I also had the resources to try out possible presentations as projections on special double-sided screens or on the water of Lake Léman. — Johanna Hullár
Graduated from a Master’s degree in photography from ECAL/Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne, Switzerland (2020), Johanna Hullár (born 1989) is a Zurich-based Hungarian artist who explores themes of connection, intimacy, materiality, time, and perception in her practice. Working with video, photography, and 3D, and experimenting with installations, she investigates the possibilities of new still and moving images and plays with the surreality of real and generated objects to reflect on the question of the possible future of balance between man-made and natural materials, represented through a humorous and feminine prism.
Photo Johanna Hullár