Untitled
oil on canvas
35 cm x 40 cm
2006
The work Untitled belongs to the series of paintings Target Market, which presents city and urban landscapes that abound in socio-political issues of everyday life in the time of globalized society.
The Target Market Series was presented at the 47th October Salon, Art, Life and Confusion, in 2006.
The title is taken from the sentence “You are a target market“, from Grant Gee’s documentary film Meeting People Is Easy. Sixty images of urban landscape, dominated by structures, buildings and advertisements, speak of the subversive messages of the consumer society. The marketing that differentiates target groups in the vocabulary of a capitalist consumerist society is a strategy that “breaks down” a large market into smaller segments in order to concentrate on a particular group of customers within a particular segment. The urban landscapes in the paintings are in fact human creations and spaces of capitalist strategies that lead to alienation and mentally impoverished space.
© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, October Salon Collection and the artist
Gift Contract: III-5-221/1/14.8.2014.
Inventory No. 1336
Photo: Milan Kralj
Selected Bibliography:
47th October Salon, Art, Life and Confusion. Cultural Centre of Belgrade, 2006
Drawing (Untitled)
drawing, pencil on paper
230 cm x 400 cm
2011
The work Drawing, of large dimensions, is a picture of a landscape, this time deprived of the visible influence of man, without clear indications of what time of the day or which season it is. The work consists of smaller formats of abstract pencil drawings, which the artist composed in a larger surface.
It is a process that represents an accumulated habitat that, modelled in this way, contains experiences of the past and present and hints of the future. It shows a personal world to which we always return, the unfulfilled desires cut at the roots, the places where we were growing up, the things we love.
The frequent theme of landscape in the work of Nataša Kokić becomes a metaphysical space for thinking about the society in which we live.
The spread of the landscape to infinity in all directions, beyond the paper, its flatness and repetition of shapes emphasize the credibility in time and space. The light source in the work is diffuse and obscure. Constant thinking about changing of the shapes and angles, and the amount of dark surfaces, makes the landscape retain its “natural” appearance. Distant and hazy, it is our private, accumulated, conceptual habitat, which exists in our minds, while it reflects the forms of the outside world. At first glance, empty areas are still fertile ground. Tactile and fragile, unstable, they are there to help us develop ideas and find inspiration. They are open to suggestions, changes, communication.
© Cultural Centre of Belgrade, October Salon Collection and the artist
Purchase Contract: III-5-486/1/22.12.2014.
Inventory No. 1386
Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Selected Bibliography:
The Finalists of the Dimitrije Bašićević Mangelos Award, Jun. 16 – Jul. 4, 2014, Exhibition Catalogue, Remont Gallery, Belgrade, 2014
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nataša Kokić (1979, Belgrade, Serbia) graduated in painting (2005) and received her master’s degree (2010) and doctorate (2019) from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. She has had group and solo exhibitions in the country and abroad; her works are part of the collections of institutions in Serbia, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark (Belgrade Cultural Centre of Belgrade, Kruševac Art Gallery, Haos Gallery; Stockholms lans landsting, Siemens Vienna, Ernst Hilger Contemporary, Vanløse Kulturhus – Copenhagen, etc.). She has won various awards and commendations for drawing, including: Dimitrija Bašićević Mangelos Award (2014), Vladimir Veličković Award (2013), KulturKontakt Austria and Henkel Art Award (2008), etc. She has participated in many international residency programmes, such as Nordisk Kunstnarsenter Dale residency, Sunnfjord, Norway (2015); International Studio and Curatorial Program ISCP, New York, USA, (2014); Kunst Kamers Rotterdam, Home is where you hang your Art, Rotterdam (2011); etc. More information at cargocollective.com/natasakokic