Artist Statement
“My latest work consist of constructed landscapes which pose some of the following questions: how will geological structures and bodies of water be altered and interpreted at some point in the future? How will these new spaces be represented? Will they be inhabitable? What is the role of human interferences in the formation of these new landforms? What are the parallels of application and processing of different art materials — pigment dissolution or erosion, paint layering or abrasion, different flow and drips of the medium, to that of the land shifting and water level rise or evaporation? The unparalleled beauty of the landscapes that surround us is often in tension with the compromised environments that they represent. My paintings are attempting to investigate the complex intersection of fragile natural beauty and the impact of human intervention.
In the developmental stage, the reference materials and different landscape fragments are integrated into painted images. This part of the process allows for new discoveries and connections that lead to their own creative conclusions. This critical stage provides plenty of space for unexpected and previously unknown ideas to emerge. For example, layering images that were previously in a different context and finding newly discovered passages from one to another.
Employing different materials and new techniques plays a crucial role in opening my artistic practice to experimentation. I wish to develop a vision of scenery that is constructed in the space of possible futures, molding the fragments of existing landscapes into new realities.
Rather than to create a warning about the consequences of human impact on our surroundings, this work brings the viewer directly inside the newly constructed reality of images of possible future worlds. The surroundings which are both built and natural, provide an immersive space that transports the audience in the suggested version of the altered environment. In this way, the content is not merely a warning but provides immediate impact and urgency through singular visual means to question the societal choices in our communities and connect them globally.
This work reflects, on a more general level, the necessity of global collaborative project for human survival and coexistence. It opens up important questions: What are our hopes as we emerge on the other side after a passage through a turbulent time? How do we rebuild a new environment and reconnect with each other? What will the new landscapes in this future world look like?”
Aleksandar Popovic is a painter who employs different methods of drawing and paint application to render arresting images that are grouped in a few separate bodies of work. During various periods he has pursued an interest in the figure and explored how it interacts with the space around it. This is evident in his early work, during his years spent in the Former Yugoslavia.