Sudden Densities

Veronika is a Bulgarian multimedia creative currently based in Glasgow who is engaged predominantly in the field of architecture, painting and photography. Her artistic practice began in 2018 when she received the RSA John Kinross Travel Scholarship to Florence. There, she developed a body of work consisting of pastel paintings and double exposure analog photographs which interpreted and distorted the city’s urban fabric through the process of layering, over-exposing and blurring. The medium of multiple exposure analog photography focuses on exploring the fragility and impermanence of memory in relation to the context through highlighting texture, form, detail, light and ambiance. This method of representation gradually got translated into her watercolour life drawings which aimed at capturing the body in movement.

The work on show ‘Sudden Densities’ navigates between figuration and abstraction, painting and photography and draws away from the explicitly defined or ‘perfect’ figurative image. The overexposed and out of focus photographs are a series of playful experiments that aim to blur the line between painting and photography. The representation of the female body in movement remains a constant thread throughout all works, however, unlike the photographs which express this theme more explicitly, the satin works reveal a more elusive and metaphysical presence.

The satin paintings portray an inner presence and sense of intimacy through their fluidity and organic composition. The satin fabric plays a key role in maintaining a sense of fragility and delicateness allowing for gradual metamorphosis of the composition due to the reflectiveness and sheen of the material that partially erases the image when seen from certain angles in light. Various types of satin usually used for underlining of dresses were strategically chosen for their smoothness, lustrousness and unique porous properties allowing the ink and water to flow and create often unpredictable staining patterns determined by the force, speed and sudden densities of pouring of the liquids.

Both types of work - photography and painting - illustrate the fine balance between control and chance as the low shutter speed and diluted ink staining patterns present a certain amount of unpredictability that remains untamed.