THE KINGDOM: MYSTICAL LANDSCAPE Painting

Lucia Labas, PhD (born Zagreb, Croatia): -Visual Artist -Doctor of Art -Assistant Professor at Academy of Fine Arts University of Zagreb -Artist Statement: Creating images to me is an entrance to human mind. I am especially motivated by the impact on the individual person when indistinguishable structures and communications, that followed our daily life, get visualised. In my art work I tend to merge different art forms, so besides painting I use video, object, installation, collage, stickering and other various visual forms. As someone deeply interested in creative aspects of human beings, I work with questions such as – “How do I relate to other people through influence of my created objects/art-works? How to construct individual experiences and possibilities which allow creative/inventive potential to everyone? How to use public spaces to make art accessible to everyone?” Being even more brought up to my attentions by experiences of studying PhD in Art, these questions partially find their way through my doctoral research. In my art work I generally try to create images that are soundless and delicate supporters of the world we do not have a direct access to. In my attempts to research and discover the new areas of the creative consciousness and then bring these new insights to the surface, I am using various techniques and approaches depending on topics and my current artistic interests. I have been also motivated by the influence of sending messages in public and how technology can provide new ways of data-human contact. As a result, I often use video media as a place of continuous communication through data visualisation processing. I am also attracted in Street Art form of artistic expression found in public spaces and thus openly accessible to everyone. Other ideas that I work with are ones concerning human’s relationship to nature, art and sustainability. Bringing our home planet to the brink of destruction with our arrogant dominance over nature and global capitalist economy fuelled by the endless “want”, civilisation has distanced itself from its millennial cultural niche it has evolved with – nature. In my installations I often take “segments” of the environment and bringing them into my artwork. That is why the new environment, new knowledge and realisations, new experiences, new visual and social aspects are particularly important to me.