My recent works are inspired by landscape and its possible symbolism in contemporary world. All of the themes I'm interested in are incorporated in the drawings of fictional landscapes, which represented the obstacle course of mistakes and difficult paths that we create ourselves through time. The drawings were devoid of any visible impact left by people, with indeterminate season or time of day - they are out of time, representing private histories that we build grounding them on our surroundings, place where we grew up, people that we interact with, social circumstances we have to live with.

New works are leaning on the notion of inner landscape. This time, the scenery is either altered by human hand, or is never actually seen. The culture that is surrounding us is changing the notions of scenery, which now represents the backdrop of our lives. The landscape is changed by human hand, in attempt to improve it, to make it more perfect. The scene is altered forever but it is being transformed in itself as well, same as a natural object would change, it cannot avoid the laws of entropy. It becomes one with the rest of the land, giving the illusion that it was there since the beginning.

Unseen landscapes are actually surfaces of space rocks that we had glimpse upon but were never actually seen. Unaltered by humanity but physical forces, they represent the raw material for something a lot bigger than themselves. They are a failed planet, wandering through the vacuum, never becoming what they were supposed to become because of the influence of bigger objects and their gravity. They represent inner dreams and plans that never got to be realized because of influences from the outside.

The building of a machine, a computer, is enigmatic in itself. From theories to a physical thing that helped end the WW2 ('Colossus' computer) it is a bundle of wires that is able to calculate and "think". It's harnessing the deeper truths about the mathematical and world of energy. It is made by human hands, again by the influence of culture and science. It represents another kind of landscape, inner one indeed, but even less measureable.

As the transitional work, form fictional inner landscapes towards manmade ones, stands the work called 'Equant'. Under the burden of rocks drawn above, can be seen a cross-section of the hills. They are layered as the inner personality would be, just as every geological age laid down its deposit and raised the level of the surface. The title comes from Ptolemy and his observation of the heavens. He argued that the strange movements of the planets in the sky are result of them revolving around an imaginary point in space called Equant which, in his theory, every planet had. He used it in lack of better explanation of why the planets sometimes stop in the sky and then seem to go backwards. The drawing symbolises an imaginary personal centre, the spot where everything begins and ends, the place where all the thoughts that revolve in circles are buried under the mountains so that they can be forgotten and serve as a foundation for new and happier life.

Natasa Kokic was born in Belgrade in 1979. She graduated at the Faculty of Fine Arts in 2005 and in 2010 she received the Magister degree. Since 2001, her works were part of group and solo shows in the country and abroad. She participated in residencies in Iceland, Netherlands and Serbia and also received few awards and her works are in several private and public collections. Natasa is currently on PhD studies in Belgrade.

Credits: Remont- independent artistic association / All photos: Courtesy of the Artist

http://www.remont.net/
http://cargocollective.com/natasakokic