Artist Statement.
by Zoran Poposki, MFA, PhD, FRSA
Through my interdisciplinary practice, I explore the complexities of contemporary life and culture. My work interrogates notions of identity, territory, and the public sphere. I often incorporate elements of art history, architecture, text, and design into chaotic yet carefully constructed compositions. This visual metanarrative, underpinned by postmodern theories, offers an open-ended reading experience.
Reviewers note my use of multimedia techniques including digital printing, painting, drawing, and animation to translate the energy of global cities like Hong Kong. Layers of photographic and graphic elements evoke the density of urban signage and electric visual culture. Critics highlight my experimental, research-based approach and situate my practice in relation to Pop art, collage, and new media.
Recurring themes in my work include the relationship between the virtual and the real, the local and the global. I frequently play with fragmentation, opacity, and revelation within the picture plane. My glitch animations and overlays destabilize notions of origins and authenticity. Other pieces use satire and pastiche to problematize canonical narratives and interrogate the paradoxes of contemporary life.
I consider my creative process as an act of translation that relies on juxtaposition and intertextuality. Multiple viewpoints and diverse sign systems intersect in my work to form open-ended networks of meaning. I often take on the role of a translator, remixing found materials and theoretical discourses from different times and places to generate critical reflections on society, technology, and the role of art itself. My aim is to produce work that is intellectually engaging as well as visually striking.
My glitch animations like The Wrestler destabilize notions of origins and authenticity by taking iconic artworks and introducing digital distortions and fragmentation. The solid forms of the original break down into flickering, unstable gif animations, disrupting the artwork's aura.
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In my creative process, I approach translation as an act of transcreation, transforming and remixing source materials into something new. For example, in my Hong Kong Atlas series, I bring together diverse photographic, graphic, and textual elements from my experience of the city. Chinese characters, logos, and urban landscapes intersect and overlap to form dense, saturated compositions reflecting the hybrid identity of Hong Kong.
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I also incorporate intertextual references, juxtaposing art historical motifs with contemporary philosophical and critical discourses. Works like Hauntology playfully remix different figures and theories, using the collision of signs and styles to generate open-ended meaning. Diverse modes of communication, from language to images to diagrams, interact in my multimedia works.
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Overall, I am interested in generating intercultural and transtemporal dialogues, bringing disparate signs, materials, and ideas together through intuitive processes of composition, editing, and layering. My work relies on the productive intersections between diverse systems of meaning-making.
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