Martina Miholić

Martina Miholic
MA Fine Art

Am I? was the work for my degree show at Central Saint Martins. It grew out from my long term work initially started within the group 'Project6'. It primarily relies and refers on the piece Tagbox / Pride & Prejudice from 2008.
Prejudice and stereotypes tagbox
Dogmas photoshooting

One of my main concern was a wish to question wide specter of communication problems and channels, human perception and identity. The development of growing multiple structures, systems and languages provided as communication "tools" drive me to study and question their extensions, possibilities, boundaries and gaps as well as their by-products (stereotypes, prejudice, dogmas, violent act).

Through the course and trough my work I was trying to channel those questions and problems.
Although my Research Paper (Empty Spaces, Floating Memories, Shifting Meanings and Nauseous Identity? Or Smashing and Reconstructing) I was detecting and giving broader and personal testimonies of growing up in Croatia and all the confusion and misunderstandings accumulated trough the years, caused by frequent changes in the political regime, and thus the changes in the value system.
I tried to illustrate how the lack of a coherent and cohesive system of values and permanent perspective of looking at reality at one moment has influenced creating my personal identity which was marked by frustration of being in between definitions or being falsely defined. My frustration turned into an fanatical eagerness to define and deconstruct my background and the realities that were surrounding me.

Looking backward I'm aware how I was not just interested into shifting of meanings within different relations and contexts, but also shifting of meanings when positions of object and subject have been swapped. Using different languages I was analysing myself as an object for applying and imprinting different meanings and myself as an subject, asking myself what I am?

Martina Miholic

By referring to her work Tagbox from exhibition in Karas Gallery in 2008 Martina Miholic continues the process by which she wanted to make people think and become aware of terms and meanings they use in describing and seeing other people.
Their inclusion in the role of an observer in judging and in the role of an active participant as the signifier creates a label of a certain subject for themselves and for the relation towards the specific subject.

By participating in identification of the other and interaction with the other Martina raise a question of how important is that process in the perception of the self, in creation of one’s own identity and perception of self. How to accept the description and perception of the others towards us as relevant and compatible with our own personality, and whether such thinking has a real basis? Do we start to believe it after many similar or same statements?
As a starting point Martina takes opinion of others about her and faces the question about truthfulness of their claims.

Ksenija Baronica