The artist Ana Sladetic

Can you briefly describe yourself and your artistic approach?

I’m an artist from Croatia, and I mostly inspired by human nature, temperament and environment, also with human life on the margins of visibility, and nonverbal communication. I’m an assistant professor on Academy of Arts, University of Osijek, and I teach Printmaking. I love to spread my knowledge and experience with my students. Some of my works are created advisedly in a longer period of time, and the other works are created in the moment of explosion and rush of inspiration.

How did you develop your very special technique and style?

If we are talking about “Clean & Wrong” series of works, in the beginning I was thinking about today’s perception of purity and hygiene, where almost everything are opened with the touch, where we are absent and distant from the real content and happening. I just wanted that the visitor is the key person, who opens the picture by her/his touch (by warmth of the palm) and that the picture is in one way depending on this reaction. In this research of purity and hygiene, I notice that the woman’s figure is closely connected through promotion and implementation of purity and hygiene in real life. Women’s work in household is invisible job, so for that reason I’m using this reaction of invisibility in my work – also who opens the picture, one can see the mess, which we all have, and want to hide. But I’m not putting the woman’s figure inside of the picture, because she is not responsible of the mess that is shown. Developing this idea, where the black image through human touch becomes transparent and it is shown painted watercolor underneath, it took two years. A lot of tests have been made, because it is the first of this kind stabilization of the thermocromatic ink over watercolor and on the watercolor paper.

And when did you start working with the black cover over your artworks? And how is this technically possible?

In the end of 2014, on the artist residency Bellevue-Saal in Wiesbaden, Germany, I started on my research. The technical performance is quite difficult, because of the two types of water based pigments (pigments based on leuco dyes and watercolor pigments). The carrier, in this case, watercolor paper is extremely absorbing, which was another challenge for me. Because of the warmth of human touch, the black thermo ink is activated, and it becomes transparent, and you can see the watercolor that I made. The black ink reacts on 21 Celsius. Depending of the temperature in the gallery space, the picture in approximately 10-15minutes becomes black again, after the visitors touched it.

Clean & Wrong, 61x81cm

Is there a material or technique you would like to try one day?

I’m currently inspiring by ceramic works, techniques and inks. In my near future, I would like to research electrostatic ink in my drawings.

How do you start when working on a new artwork?

Inspiration comes from everyday life, what I lived and experienced, sometimes also from what I found hard to have, or what I’m sorry for.

I first start with the works that my whole inward vibrates for. And not every work is determined with the same amount of time.

Can you tell us a bit more about your series “Dreams”?

In series of works Dreams, I’m researching topography, orientation and documentation of dreams. I noticed, with observation of my dreams, the presence of traveling through time, wormholes and joining of an impossible and ironically absurd. It is interesting to compare the unconsciousness in a reality and unconsciousness in a dreams. Is it the same thing? In works, I try to document a maps of an events in the dreams and conditions in the phase of dreaming.

How would you describe the Croatian artistic scene and its latest development?

There is a tracking of trends in the presentation of the artworks. Namely, if we are talking about the market, most of artworks are sold through the direct orders or recommendations, while the artists for better exhibitions and presentation, at least those younger ones, represent themselves with another works. There are lots of good artists on Croatian scene, with lots of potential. The Croatian art scene needs to be present and active, and followed by it’s own way of creation.