What role does the dissemination of visually appealing images play and what makes something visually intense in the visual arts? Katja Novitskova in her photo-sculptures tries to deeply investigate these issues. Among the works that are part of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo- Foundation collection, the Estonian artist exhibits popular photographs of animals found online to the public, where the line between what is digital and what is considered authentic becomes increasingly blurred. According to the artist, animal images have great potential to evoke fascination and emotional bond in the recipient and this happens regardless of age or social class. From 12 April, the Factory, recently inaugurated new exhibition space of the Manifattura Tabacchi in Florence, has become a permanent part of ‘Fuorimostra,’ presenting a selection of works by the famous Estonian artist from the collection of the aforementioned foundation. ‘Fuorimostra’ was born as a detached section of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation anda part of the exhibition ‘Reaching for the Stars. From Maurizio Cattelan to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye,’ organised in active collaboration with the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation.
Photo-sculptures as an image incorporated into collective life
The intangible photographic performance of the digital space is translated into three-dimensional photo-sculptures, evolving together with the public’s interaction.In the exhibition space of the Manifattura Tabacchi, photography becomes a way to incorporate the image into collective life. Representations of animals shared online flatten in cyberspace, are immortalized in two dimensions, but, at the same time, they become energy-consuming entities, stored in servers located around the world, attracting great fascination and attention from digital nomads. Within the exhibition, in a post-industrial space, visitors can confront their fascinations, being involved in this photographic performance and find themselves immersed in a land inhabited by the polar bear with a slightly shaded red face [‘Approximation (polar bear),’ 2017] or from a hyper-realistic exotic spider (‘jumping spider, spider, cathedral termite mounds, growth potential,’ 2015). Looking at part of the portrait of an ibis with cosmic dust on its feet (‘Approximation Mars I,’ 2014) the visitor discovers that he has been involved in a game. The artist sees the potential of images of these cute animals as an approximation of future technologies and the sphere of life, in which the most contemporary stratum of society, the geology of a planet, ecosystems and the relationships between humans and all other beings meet in a process of deep interaction.
An exchange between the real and the virtual in a perfectly infinite cycle
Katja Novitskova’s sculptural photographs, with high quality and resolution details interspersed with some imperfect pixels, have something bizarre in their irregularity and cause attraction and attention towards them. Describing the process of acquiring images from digital space, it is worth mentioning the so-called economy of poor images, which Hito Steyerl wrote about in her text ‘In Defense of the Poor Image.’ The result of the poor economy of the image is a continuous exchange between the real and the virtual in a perfectly infinite cycle. Against this background, black and white and color photographs of animals, playfully shown in the context of desert landscapes, anthills and in a kind of cosmic dust, no longer look poor, because they shine in their charm, are not fragmented and recall the attention of the viewer whose concentration is usually rather limited. In her work, Katja focuses on the ability of juxtaposed immaterial images to be downloaded, modified and valued at will by the individual. Here, the images tend to arouse fascination and attraction in the viewer, slipping to the border between reality and its representation, being transformed, in the exhibition space, into physical photo-sculptures that shine on aluminum plates and cardboard panels.
Our aesthetic category of emotionally engaging animal images – the cute one
This dynamic process may suggest how aesthetic experiences have been transformed in a performance-driven late capitalist society, which Sianne Ngai wrote about in her book ‘Our Aesthetic Categories,’ when she introduces the new aesthetic categories of zany, interesting and cute. In this performance the predominant category is certainly that of the cute, which includes particularly socially binding production and consumption processes, in which the wide spectrum of feelings that we, consumers, have towards goods is revealed, in this case images of cute animals, ranging from tenderness to aggression. The cute category represents our ambivalent or antithetical response to contemporary culture and commodities: playfulness and despair, tenderness and aggression, stimulation and boredom.
Post-internet aesthetics and the speculative potential of images
Contemporary visual arts are faced with constantly evolving technologies, where the material world and the digital subject can interact in an exciting way, rediscovering their conceptual and speculative potential. In the course of daily life, nature and artifacts cross living beings, borders between countries and cultures: the process of hybridization of humans with technology is not something extraordinary, but a part of the daily experience of care and attention towards complex and nomadic nature of the systems of contemporary societies and of the subjects who inhabit them. The focal point in the exhibition of Novitskova’s works of the period reminiscent of the times of the exponential development of post-internet aesthetics (2012-2018) are the images of animals generated by the combination of man-made technology and the representation of the natural world of animals. Photographs play an important role as a representation of a part of memory, but they can play with our sensitivity, reflect desires and at the same time be fragile. The power of the presence of the animal form can also be translated into the sense of attraction and emotional bond they cause, often being used as marketing strategies for consumer purposes. Values such as authenticity, the creative dimension of the image have become by now a tool in the search for one’s choice of consumption to legitimize the transformations of the market in progress.
Written by Aleksandra Lisek
Katja Novitskova
12.04 – 18.06.2023
part of the exposition of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi ‘Reaching for the Stars. Da Maurizio Cattelan a Lynette Yiadom-Boakye,’ in collaboration with Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.
Factory, Manifattura Tabacchi, Firenze.
You can read more about Katya Novitzkova’s work in Contemporary Lynx Magazine 2(16)2021.
Bibliografia:
- S. Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting, Cambridge 2012, s. 1-52
- H. Steyerl, In Defense of the Poor Image, Issue #10 November 2009,
- [https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/], last access: 19/04/2023.
