During her residency at AGA Lab, Croatian artist Barbara Miše experimented with different technical possibilities and limits of working in etching, using the resulting prints as starting points for creating a series of digital collages. The resulting artworks convey her process of adapting to a new context, as she grapples with a fragile notion of 'home'.
In the artist's words:
"At the start of my residency, having just moved to Amsterdam, I was thinking a lot about how much of 'home' we carry with us, the way that we connect and transpose our memories to unfamiliar environments in order to make sense of the place. In the past ten years I've lived in seven different cities, whether within my home country (Croatia) or abroad. It was always very interesting to experience the process of adaptation to different environments - from spatial orientation to different cultural aspects or social norms of the place I was moving to. My sense of identity would change based on my surroundings.
I had an idea on how to approach these subjects in classical etching techniques, but I've found myself gradually more interested in losing control in the process - I wanted to explore the technical possibilities of various materials applied in different stages of the etching process. So for example, I've put alternative grounds (different mixes of solutes and solvents, or different greasing and degreasing agents with neutral carriers) on a clean and polished zinc plate, that would mix in a specific way in respect to their physical attributes and create textures on the plate which I would later on expose to the etching acid. For a technique such as etching, that (in general terms) requires a lot of planning and accuracy (in regards to timing, measuring in mixing solutions, temperature of the room etc.), these processes provided somewhat of a loose window in which I would not set upon an expected outcome, but allow the outcome to divert and steer the process in a new direction. To close the cycle, I would return to the default state of utilizing the experiments in a more controlled manner.
I've used the prints produced from these experiments to create digital collages. These would serve as a sketch for creating more elaborate plates in which I would combine several of the tested techniques. The dream-like landscapes that took form are personal reflections on the process of adaptation. Composed by varying textures, materials, and products of a long process of experimentation, I've found a way to integrate and create a heterogenous unity. I feel like this 'letting go' is an action performed after a cumulation of information, after which the adaptation process begins and creates something new."
Residency dates: 15 January - 25 March 2022
On the last day of her residency, Barbara did a showcase of work-in-progress, alongside fellow AiR artist Tuija Asta Järvenpää.
Barbara Miše is an artist from Croatia, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She completed her undergraduate studies in Animation and New media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, and is currently writing-up her Master’s thesis in Illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
She works in the fields of printmaking, illustration, animation and sound design. In her recent work she is trying to understand and address the subjective experiences of memory recollection, preservation and its deterioration. She likes to think about objects and their absence as signifyers of the past, and the value and power we attribute to them.
You could've seen and/or heard some of her work on sound art and film festivals (Sound Art Inkubator, 2016, Zagreb, Croatia; Sine Linea 2017, Zagreb; Floating Castle festival 2020 & 2021, Grad Snežik, Slovenia; ANIMATEKA, Ljubljana, 2020), and other group exhibitions and film screenings in Croatia and Slovenia.
