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Images, images…. and once again images
“My work starts from a personal place,
but the work isn’t ‘personal’. It’s everyone.”
We have chosen this statement by Georgina Starr, an artist of the “second wave” of so-called Young
British Artists whose works form part of Saatchi’s collection, because we firmly believe it illustrates
Margareta Jelić’s poetic discourse best. Margareta Jelić is a young artist from Belgrade who focuses
on various issues in her art: alienation in a globalized world, unfulfilled dreams, love, loneliness and
existential fear, that is, all of those dilemmas this artist is sharing with her generation and people from
her immediate social environment. Bearing in mind the fact that Margareta was born at the end of the
1960s and that she belongs to a generation whose world of ideas and views have been shaped to a degree
by a civilisation of images, i.e. TV, cartoons, fashion, pop culture and its icons, it is understandable
why she uses symbols of that culture in her creative opus and mixes some traditional art techniques
with some new media.
In her author discourse of (un)usual stories, Margareta Jelić starts from reality. But, she builds fiction
into her works, regardless of the medium they have been created in – the art of painting, animation,
video or multimedia installation, because fiction turns a trivial story from everyday life into a magical
world of imagination. The artist’s sensual style, bearing a resemblance to graphic qualities and pictorialism
of children’s drawings, contributes to her individual approach we recognize as an authentic
form of expression on our contemporary art scene. Pop iconography in the artist’s work is present as
archetypical symbols of childhood, on one hand (for example, toys and objects from fairy tales) and as
idols and heroes from pop culture and fairy tales, on the other hand, with whom the main protagonist
or central character in the artist’s story identifies, like a “face in the mirror” (for example, the presence
of the Snow Queen in her film Marta i njeni prijetelji (Marta And Her Friends) or Noah in the film Dobar
dan, gospodine Noah (Good day, Mr Noah)). These symbols are important in terms of art images and set
designs. They play a descriptive and narrative role in the script concepts of her films. Objects, colours,
idols…bear a certain meaning which illustrates a hero’s lifestyle in a painterly representation or an
animated film. Their function in the action is determined. Finally, they contribute to a successful ending
of the story.
The visit to the world of animation
It is interesting to know why Margareta as a painter have decided to do her first animated film Marta
i njeni prijatelji (Marta And Her Friends), taking into consideration the fact that creative process in the
domain of animation is very complex because it combines image, movement and sound. Did this young
artist’s restless creative spirit, her inclination towards researches in the domain of different media, her
quest for some innovative forms of expression, and enormous potentials of modern technology prevail?
Or, can the artist’s motives be anticipated in her experience gained in a “civilisation of images” which
date back from her childhood that was influenced by cartoons from Disney production? For the time being,
it is a mystery. Perhaps some future art critics will deal with this issue. However, what one notices
as a consistent value of Margareta Jelic’s film opus is, for sure, her continual interest in those fascinating
issues which marked the life of her generation. That constant and, at this point, decades-long focus on
animation has resulted in the following animated films: Marta i njeni prijatelji (Marta And Her Friends)
(2000), Srušeni snovi (Unfulfilled Dream) (2003), Četiri priče o nama (Four Stories About Us) (2005) and
Dobar dan, gospodine Noa (Good Day, Mr Noah) (2009). Identifiable art and theme concepts of these
films corroborate the fact that some everyday life stories can be indeed given in form of a single cycle of
short feature films that possesses some genre characteristics of an omnibus.
If one changes media of expression and transfers images from the art of painting into a multimedia
form (animated film, video, installation, interactive book), this process includes changes in the status
of images: from static into animated. The changes of that primal vision of a representation in the art of
painting create, in such a way, a new visual identity of space, i.e. space with expanded borders of the
visual field within which we can perceive both an observing subject and an observed object.
Animated film is a complex form of expression, somewhere between film and fine arts. It combines
experiences of the two media. At the same time, it demands an author with versatile skills in various
domains of art, because animated film includes writing a script, storyboarding, creating images and
working with different techniques. The principles of Dovniković’s school of animated film will help us
explain, in a simple way, the working process Margareta applies. Margareta uses CGI (computer generated
imagery) because it is a more suitable way of production than manual techniques. Everything
happens quickly on the computer screen. It is easier to model images because a computer enables us to
do various manipulations on the screen. Production is significantly cheaper too. In terms of operation,
computer images are created in Flash Adobe or some other computer programme. Then they are turned
into frames and put into a desired order. Afterwards, scenes are modelled and 3D figures are rigged with
a virtual skeleton. The virtual space is edited, and then coloured. A script is written on the computer and
storyboarding scenes are developed. Frames, combinations of plans and characters are generated. It is
possible to compose music and create sound on the computer as well.
If we concentrate on Margareta’s animated films, there is an important segment of this creative process
which might be observed as the final working phase – post-production. It understands presentation
of a film in a way that is typical for contemporary fine art. Bearing in mind the fact that, on one hand,
animation as a film genre has never been developed in a right way in Serbian culture and that there is
no recognisable production, as it is the case with the famous Zagreb school of animated film, and that
there are not so many artists who are dedicated to animation as a modern medium of fine art expression,
on the other hand, then the issue of presentation becomes more complex. In our art practice,
animation usually means video which is presented in form of an installation in space, and Margareta
Jelić’s previous exhibitions speak in favour of our claim.
A complex concept and production of multimedia working process are things that define Margareta
Jelić’s work as an innovative medium of expression. But they also include a new concept of animation
presentation in an exhibition venue. Margareta Jelić’s project Dobar dan, gospodine Noa (Good day,
Mr Noah), which is also her PhD thesis at the Department of Multimedia Art, the University of Arts in
Belgrade, should be observed from that aspect. It is an animated film in form of a four-channel video
with simultaneous projections. These projections positioned in different places at an exhibition venue
turn the work into an installation. In that complex production and post-production enterprise, this new
creation is characterised by one more thing – interactivity between sliding images on the wall and a
visitor when she/he enters the space of this work.
Static and animated images
Dobar dan gospodine Noa (Good day, Mr Noah), as a new interactive project, represents best a new approach
towards some innovative art media in the domain of exhibiting, as well as towards interaction
in communication with the public. Thanks to various manipulations on the computer and development
of digital technologies, boundaries of the visual in a work of art, and they are defined usually by the
relationship between the body, movement, scene and space, have been moved forward significantly.
Following Merlot Ponti’s theory on phenomenology principles of observing movements of the body
in motion, we realise that a figure in motion determines the mobility of scenes with its bodily movements.
“The body in motion and its appearance in various points of an image create direct perspective
which puts physical features of the body in the first plan (…)” According to this theory on visuality of
the body, a perceptible direction of the position of the head (en face, profile, back) and movements of
the head and the leg in an image define motions which make a frame move left-right and up-down.
According to this theory, which Margareta has followed, space is defined as a composition and angle of
observation on the bases of visual experience of the central character’s motion through different frames
of a scene. That perception of space comprises inner and outer elements of the body in motion. In Margareta
Jelic’s art production, inner and outer spaces in her film Dobar dan, gospodine Noa (Good day, Mr
Noah) are determined primarily by its script which comprise 6 scenes. In the first scene, we see the interior
of a room with bed where Noah is sleeping. He is getting up, going towards the window in order to
close it; in the second scene, he is going to the kitchen, then leaving the apartment; in the third, he is in
his car on his way to work, driving by various buildings and houses seen from an observer’s eye view; in
the fourth scene, Noah is entering his office and working on his computer. We can see some scenes in his
office. In the fifth scene, he sees on his computer screen the Red Dragon flying in the sky above the city.
He registers danger on his control board. Through the window, we can see people in panic and chaos
in the city streets. Manipulating on his computer, Noah starts a fight with the Dragon and succeeds in
defeating him. The sky above the city is clear again and Noah realises that there is no danger any longer.
In the sixth scene, Noah continues to work on his computer. We can observer the office interior from
several angles. Behind Noah’s back and through the window, we can see the sunset. Noah is leaving his
office. The description of the script told in such a dull way belong to so-called short form of animation
(duration time: 5 minutes) although the entire projection lasts 20 minutes all together with credits. To
create space in form of an animation and ambient set-up is always very interesting in each and every
complex multimedia project that is done as an animated film and presented as a four-channel visual
and audio installation with simultaneous projections. In the images projected on the walls, space is
defined by the central character’s movements through each frame. It is presented as a flat surface with
the width; the depth is determined by the width, i.e. by the position from which we observe the images
slide through the space and move from wall to wall in a four-channel projection.
The work is accompanied by an audio material the artist created by herself. Sound in the film has a
functional role. The artist has used sounds she recorded in her immediate environment. Sound comes
from certain physical activities of the central character (opening windows, street noisy, typing on the
computer keyboard). Sound effects emphasize certain situation in the action.
The entire project Dobar dan, gospodine Noa (Good day, Mr Noah) seems to be in a perfect harmony in
all the segments of the work and technical realisation, which in the end should lead to the goal – a
synchronised four-channel projection. The only things that might provoke a certain level of discomfort
in this exciting monograph story are Good Bye and Good night, Noah. These words would be said to the
central character, who is tired at the end of an exciting day, before he falls asleep. But, judging by some
previous experiences, this might become the subject of Margarita’s next work if she continued this story
about Mr Noah. It is worthwhile waiting for. But, we shall see.
By Gordana Dobrić
Bibliography
1. Art at the Turn of the Millenium, Taschen, Köln, 1999.
2. Brian Sherwin, Georgina Starr, http://www.myartspace.com/interviews/art-space-talk-georgina-starr.html
3. Borivoj Dvorniković Bordao, A school of animation, Film Center Serbia, Belgrade, 2006.
4. Antology of animation, (ed.) Ranko Munitić, Film Center Serbia, Belgrade, 2009.
5. Rastko Ćirić, Moves your drawings, Institute for Film, Belgrade, 1986.
6. Мaurice Marleau-Pounty, Phenomenology of perception, “Veselin Masleša“, Sarajevo, 1978.
7. Michael Rush, New Media in Late 20th Century Art, Thames& Hudson, London, 1986.