THE CAGE OF OBSCURE MADNESS



[ THE: DEFINITE ARTICLE: USED TO MARK A PROPER NOUN, NATURAL PHENOMENA, SHIP, BUILDING, TIME, POINT OF COMPASS, BRANCH OF ENDEAVOUR, OR FIELD OF STUDY AS SOMETHING WELL-KNOWN OR UNIQUE ]  

[ CAGE: NOUN: ANYTHING THAT CONFINES OR IMPRISONS - PRISON ]
[ CAGE: 1912-1992: US COMPOSER ]

[ OBSCURE:  ADJECTIVE: NOT DISCOVERE OR KNOWN ABOUT - UNCERTAIN: NOOT CLEARLY EXPRESSED OR EASILY UNDERSTOOD ]

[ MADNESS: NOUN: THE STATE OF HAVING A SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS: EXTREMELY FOOLISH BEHAVIOUR: A STATE OF WILD OR CHAOTIC ACTIVITY ]


THE CAGE OF OBSCURE MADNESS => A PLACE TO LOOSE YOURSELF WHILE WANDERING => SPACE OUT OF SPACE => BOX OUT OF BOX => BLACK BOOK IDEAS

INTERRUPT NATURAL FLUIDITY OF THE CAR PARK - CAVENDISH SQUARE CAR PARK AT OXFORD STREET LONDON - UNRESTRICTED MOVEMENT => BLOCK IN A FREE-FLOW => GALLERY TRAP => BUT THIS CAGE HAS A STRETCHING CAPACITY => PENETRABLE EVEN WITHOUT A DOOR => STRANGE SPACE OF SIMULTANEOUS RESTRICTION RESTRICTION AND OPENNESS => PROVOCATIVE SPACE => OPENING AND CLOSING SIMULTANEOUSLY 



WHITE LIGHT inside THE WHITE CUBE

[VIDEO STILLS]  


THIS PERFORMATIVE ACTION OF CREATING AND INHABITING THE WHITE CUBE HAPPENED IN 2015 DURING ART LICKS WEEKEND IN LONDON. EDITED IN A SERIES OF INTERCONNECTED VIDEO EPISODES IN 2016 - A PROJECT AIMS TO BE REALISED AS AN IMMERSIVE VIDEO INSTULLATIONS ON MULTIPLE MONITORS.

ELEMENTS OF PHYSICALLY BUILT SPACE COULD BE ALSO PRESENT. THEN, MAKING VIDEO INSTALLATION TO BE INTEGRATED PART OF A MIXED MEDIA ENVIRONMENT.


=> WHITE LIGHT => NOT-MASTERPLANNED FILM PRODUCTION 

=> ART LICKS WEEKEND 2015 [1-4 OCT]
 [ http://www.artlicks.com/]
=> 1 - 4 OCTOBER 2015 
=> LONDON UK
=> IN CONVERSATION WITH 'The cReature Film' 2012

=> WHITE CUBE =>  SITE-SPECIFIC IMMERSIVE INSTALLATION TRANSGRESSING A GALLERY SPACE

[ THROUGHOUT MY ART PRACTICE I AM STRIVING TO GRASP THE FUNDAMENTS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE, THE FIRST FILM 'The creature' DEDICATED TO A BITTER-IRONIC INVESTIGATION OF BIRTH-LIFE-DEATH SEQUENCE HAS HAPPENED IN MY FORMER THIRD-FLOOR STUDIO. AND LASTED FOR THREE DAYS. SOMEONE, WHO WAS NOT ME, HAD BEEN INHABITING MY STUDIO FOR THREE DAYS. IT HAD HAPPENED TO BE A CRUCIAL EXPERIENCE AS IT WAS. I STOPPED MAKING ANY KIND OF OBJECTS AND PAINTINGS. DRIVEN TO IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENTS, I TURNED TOWARDS CREATING SPACES OF A TOTAL EXPERIENCE WHERE ALL THE KNOWN AND UNKNOW PERCEPTIONS ARE INVOLVED AND BEING ACTIVATED. THIS YEAR, FOR ART LICKS WEEKEND 2015, - I AM INVITING VISITORS TO MY STUDIO ON THE FIRTS-FLOOR, WHERE AN INVERSION OF 'The creature Film' WILL BE PERFORMED. IN EFFECT, IT IS NOT A PERFORMANCE - BUT RATHER AN INVITATION TO EXPERIENCE A TOTALLY NOT-MASTERPLANNED FILM PRODUCTION." - ULIANA APATINA, ARTIST http://artlicksweekend.com/event/white-light/ ]

[[[ WHITE LIGHT ]]]
[ WHITE LIGHT: EPISODE 1: FEARS ]
[ WHITE LIGHT: EPISODE 2: PILLOW ]
[ WHITE LIGHT: EPISODE 3: STRINGS ]
[ WHITE LIGHT: EPISODE 8: MIRROR OR BIRTH OF THE WHITE LIGHT ]


THOUGH WHITE LIGHT IS CONVERSING WITH The cREATURE, STRATEGICALLY IT ACQUIRES A VERY DIFFERENT VIBE - IN SPITE OF CONTAINING HYPER-SENSITIVE EPISODES OF FEARS, FRUSTRATIONS, MEMORIES AND CONTEMPORARY TECHNOLOGICAL PARANOIAS, IT IS A HAPPY FILM SPICED WITH HUMOUR AND SELF ACCEPTANCE. 

SHARPLY DIVIDED INTO TEN INTERCONNECTED EPISODES WHITE LIGHT IS INTENDED TO BE SHOWN ON SEPARATE SIMULTANEOUSLY RUN MONITORS IN A MODE OF AN IMMERSIVE VIDEO/MIXED MEDIA INSTALLATION.

BEING RELATED NOT ONLY TO The creature Film BUT ALSO TO SACRED DANGER, REINVENTING A SACRED SPACE OF HUMANITY, THROUGH MIMICKING AN ATMOSPHERE OF A STANDARD WHITE CUBE GALLERY SPACE - SACRED SPACE OF CONTEMPORARY ART. 

PAINTING THE CUBE WHITE IS ALSO ONE OF THE EPISODES WITH THE ARTIST ACTING AS A UNIVERSAL PAINTER BATTLING WITH AN EMPTY SPACE THROUGH ART HISTORICAL REFERENCES TO PAINTING PRACTICES AND PROCESSES. 

ALL EPISODES COULD BE GROUPED ON CLUSTERS: BEFORE THE WHITE CUBE, INSIDE THE WHITE CUBE, AFTER THE WHITE CUBE, WHITE CUBE.

WHITE CUBE IS A  SITE-SPECIFIC IMMERSIVE INSTALLATION. 


SACRED DANGER

THE KIM FIELDING AWARD FOR EXPERIMENTAL ARTS



SACRED DANGER PART II

VIDEO INSTALLATION TRANSFERRING A PHYSICAL EXPERIENCE OF SACRED DANGER PART I

INSTALLATION VIEWS





EXCERPTS FROM VIDEOS







SOUNDSCAPE AND INTERACTION RECORDINGS
https://soundcloud.com/ulianaapatina/uliana-apatina-sacreddanger-sound

PRESS
A-N ARTICLE

Location: St David's House, Cardiff, Wales, UK.

Opening: 27 November 2015.

Materials: amplifiers, speakers, projectors, 3 suspended screens, multiple mesh screens, 11 HD video looped, two monitors with HD video looped, one with sound, separate amplifiers with speakers for interactive sound.

Dimensions: H 3 x W 15 x D 10 m.

Supported by: The Kim Fielding Award, Coed Hills Rural Art Space, Cardiff City Council.

Statement: Immersive, site-specific multi-channel sound-video installation transferring the experience of a physical space, that one of Sacred Danger installed in Coed Hills.


Description: Multiplicity of screens is mimicking a disorienting nature of Sacred Danger at Coed Hills. Each projector and monitor contains its own sound, while sound of the interaction with Sacred Danger is travelling into the darkness of the vast space from specifically designated speakers in a middle corner. Three suspended screens are flying over a meshed corridor which allows both projections and visitors to travel all the way through. Two monitors on a floor are staring at a fast rotating projection over a ceiling repeatedly insisting that they are scared. Soundscapes composed of an airplane, cows, horses, human voices, wind, rain, steps are merging with violent noises generated by material components of Sacred Danger. Projections are spinning and rotating submerging you into the innermost darkness of your imagination.

SD PART II
SD PART II





SACRED DANGER PART I

SITE-SPECIFIC IMMERSIVE PROCESS-BASED OUTSIDE INSTALLATION REINVENTING A SACRED SPACE 

OR 

A PLACE FOR A SOLITUDE TO RECONSTRUCT YOUR OWN SELF

ARTIST => ULIANA APATINA
ENGINEER => IVAN IVASJUK
CONSTRUCTION => ULIANA APATINA
                                  SIMON HUMPHRIES

SUPPORTED BY => THE KIM FIELDING AWARD FOR EXPERIMENTAL ARTS => CARDIFF WALES, COED HILLS RURAL ART SPACE, CARDIFF CITY COUNCIL

MATERIALS => PLEXIGLASS, ZINC PLATED STEEL, CELLULAR RUBBER.
DIMENSIONS => H 2.3 X W 2.7 [1.5 INSIDE CORRIDOR] X D 9.5 M.

COMPLETED => SEPTEMBER 2015
OPENING => 19 SEPTEMBER 2015

LOCATION => COED HILLS RURAL ART SPACE LLANTRITHYD ROAD COWBRIDGE SOUTH GLAMORGAN WALES CF71 7DP
[BUS X2 FROM CARDIFF TO ST HILARY THEN APPROX 15 MIN WALK TO COED HILLS]

PRESS 
THE CREATORS PROJECT
BUZZFEED

VIDEO LINK   

THE KIM FIELDING AWARD WEBSITE  


DAYTIME TRANSPARENCY







 RAIN




FROSTED => IN THE EARLY MORNING FOG

































FLAMING RED => AT THE SUNSET













VISIBILITY FROM FAR AWAY FIELDS







APPROACHING FROM BEHIND THE BUSH




The whole idea that you don't see it from behind the bush, assuming that a landscape is naked. Only while approaching would you be able to distinguish a glimpse of a transparent ghost behind the entrance gate naturally shaped by the bush and just a little bit expanded by the artist.

COLD BLUE EVENING



ENTRANCE GATES









SITUATION OF NO EXIT

BEHIND THE GRASS


EVAPORATION




GREY DAY















INSIDE => REFLECTIVE DISTORTIONS




























BEFORE THE NIGHT








NIGHT



DETAILS



















EXPERIENCES
















Sacred Danger – immersive site-specific outside installation or a structural intervention in a landscape reinventing a sacred space. A project is inspired by my research trip to Blaenau Ffesteniog in North Wales, where I have been taken by local people to abandoned slate queries. By experiencing a sensation of the innermost fear and danger during this journey – those slate queries could collapse any time – I have compared them to Gothic cathedrals, that one of a beauty and attractive seduction though simultaneously the one of a danger and manipulation.

Visible from far away fields, Sacred Danger sits on a sharply inclined hill like a weightless cloud inviting you to enter into its inside. Although, the very moment you find yourself there, a situation is reversed into insecurity and vulnerability by exposing your body to the attack of a fluctuating under the strong wind structure built out of just 6mm plexiglass penetrated by massive 1inch steel rods. Dragon shape of a zig-zag foundation is confusing in its refractive magnifying reflections, and willing to escape to a stunning sea side horizon you are bounded to a disappointment – you are inside the space with no exit. The exit is blocked by a transparent plexiglass which obviously you do not see unless by touching it on approaching. In effect, you would try to exit Sacred Danger on every turn of a dragon only to realise that transparency is an illusion and all your senses and perceptions are disoriented.

Chameleonic nature of Sacred Danger, with a great sensitivity reacting on each of the atmospheric conditions, makes the structure change its appearance within nearly every hour. Transparent throughout the day. Frosted in the early morning by dense fog. Turning flaming red in the sunset. With sliding raindrops in the evening. The structure claims its own presence to be unbelievable. A space with no exit dissolves in nature by confronting it. Triggers the mind by challenging and provoking it. Delusional crystal clear transparency of plexiglass transforms Sacred Danger into a totally invisible volume suspending threaded bars in the air.


Being deliberately created to transfer the feeling of insecurity, instability and danger - you just simply don't believe that the structure holds itself up and this is exactly how it should be. Though, each experience would be totally different, somehow you are supposed to be scared inside and so you do.

On entering Sacred Danger through a hole in a bush, you are signing an agreement with nature by excepting a possibility of the existence of something that logically could not have ever existed.