ANDREJA PROKOPIJEVIĆ
BALLET POINT SHOES SCULPTURES
Andreja Prokopijević has drawn inspiration from her long-term training in various dance styles, at first classical ballet, and then modern dance. In her sculptures, the movement is frozen. Relying on her artistic intuition, she succeedes in conveying all the dramatic tension, the theatrical aspect of the ballet movement, arduous work and self-discipline it requires. Andreja combines seemingly irreconcilable things-the rough texture of iron, unsightly and sensual at the same time, with the sophisticated satin. As the world of things has psychological, visual, conceptual and temporal implications, their raggedness is illustrative of the vulnerability and limited duration. The object is understood as a phenomenon which reduces the universal to the particular, a historical fact to a subjective experience. It is a catalyst between time and man, between a sculpture in space in which it exists. It carries multiple meanings. It is a sign of the times, a subjective expression, and at the very same time – a visual form and psychological symbol. The artist has created the subtle interplay between light and shadow, balance and imbalance, mass and void, abrupt endings and sudden urges. The unadorned sculptures are completely freed from mimetic demands. Dance can be regarded as a way to transcend the material world, an expression of one’s spiritual life. Dance can also be interpreted as a symbol of the fight, the fight against death, adversity, but also against oneself, one’s fears, weaknesses and doubts.