Crisia Miroiu
DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK
‘Dark Window’, ‘The Cry’ and ‘Man with Red Mug, Cigarette and a Dream’ are exploring the state between dream and full consciousness/reality. ‘Dark Window’ captures the window of a deserted building at evening hours. The late hour lights amplify the fear sensation associated with it, as the darkness of the window brings with it a nightmare kind of feeling. ‘The Cry’ refers to the strong emotions of the very young age, when fantasy and reality seldom associate, making difficult for the spectators to understand whether there is a real reason for concern, or a bad dream. ‘Man with Red Mug, Cigarette and a Dream’ arrests one man’s daydreaming. Enraptured in his reverie, he wouldn’t notice the intrusion of the photographic eye.
I also attach couple of images from ‘Unseen Cities’, a series that explores the multiple ways in which we can see a cityscape, delving into the relationship between: the physical reality of a landscape as it can be seen with the naked eye, the appearance of a landscape as it can be seen through the lens, and, ultimately, the appearance of a landscape as it can be seen after capture.
The final images presented within this series offer ‘unseen’ views of the selected landscapes as they eventually combine within a single picture different visual representations of the same physical space. Thus, they bring together various ways of ‘seeing’ a landscape, creating a picture that can be seen only on a screen or as a print – a picture that, ultimately, does not exist in reality. Although created in a ‘conscious’ state, it represents the product of imagination. The blurriness and fuzziness that characterize the images, add-up to the ‘dreamy-like’ impression created by the series, facilitating the transition between fantasy and reality.
ABOUT CRISIA MIROIU
A graduate of the University of Sydney, I began my career as a documentary photographer in Indiana, USA, where I had my first solo show in March 2009. I participated to over 45 juried art and photography exhibitions, published in several arts journals and was a finalist for various awards competition, such as Verge Awards or the Australian Art Show. Within the last two years, I had two solo photography exhibits and two solo multimedia installations, and was part of 1st Worldwide Studio and Apartment Biennale, Brighton Biennale, Head On Festival and Art and About Festival.
I was awarded free artistic residencies by BigCi (Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiatives, NSW, Australia) and by L’Atelier de la Gare (Dinan County, Brittany, France). Also, in October 2015, I was awarded a full-funded position as an artist-in-residence with the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (Slovakia). Most recently, I presented performance work during the Nomadic Arts Festival ‘16 and my visual work was featured by CICA Museum, in South Korea.