VERA RYKLOVA
the self portfolio 2012 - 2015
’’An image is symbolic when it implies something more than its obvious and immediate meaning. It has a wider ’unconscious’ aspect that is never precisely defined or fully explained. Nor can one hope to define or explain it. As the mind explores the symbol, it is led to ideas that lie beyond the grasp of reason.’’
Carl G. Jung, Man and His Symbols (1964).
This portfolio features a body of photographic self-portraiture created within the span of four years. It began as a curious experiment and developed into the major direction of my artwork, which gave photography the function of a device that I use to achieve a state of catharsis. The first five opening images are reproduction of photographs that I have taken of myself at the age of fifteen, during this time I was introduced to the camera and photography for the first time in my life. The original prints were lost and the negatives misplaced for twenty-five years until I found them again, realising that I have a history of desire for exploring the self and that this desire had reached beyond the sphere of art already, before my conscious awareness.
The works selected in this portfolio I have produced while studying photography at IADT Dun Laoghaire.
In Difficulties
c 2012
This series happened to be my first attempt of employing myself as a model within the concept of my art work.The images represent a metaphor expressing a process of trying and failing while striving to create a meaningful piece of artwork.
medium: digital photography
Nude Study
c 2012
Is an explicit observation of a female body's shape and texture, adding a gentle twist to its appearance.
medium: digital photography
c 2013
Explores the role of feminine eroticism in women's everyday life. With this work, containing 15 images, I aim to provoke the viewer into a controversy between erotic and nude.
medium: medium format black and white film
c 2015
It is a photographic exploration of desire and the sense of self within a concept of social and cultural belonging. I have intentionally employed elements that allow for different layers of interpretation. Through the role-playing I addresses such subjects as gender, identity, sexuality and my foreign origins, in a manner that provokes but does not denounce. Although motivated by my state of a single woman entering her forties, the work does not portray these circumstances as such.
medium: medium format colour and black and white film
c 1989 and 2014
A work of reproduction of a number of self-portraits that I had taken at the age of 15. From selected images I have formed a homonymous book - a dummy - including reflection, written in the two languages I speak, on my teenage experiences of the communist regime in CSSR.
medium: 35 mm black and white film