Syndicate: "i am milica tomic" at CyGn

[yshikata@crpg.canon.co.jp (Yukiko Shikata)]

"i am milica tomic" by Milica Tomic(YU)
 at Shiseido CyGnet

http://www.shiseido.co.jp/cygnet/

Here I would like to inform you that "i am milica tomic," the first
Internet work by Milica Tomic is on at CyGnet where I am a guest curator.

In this work Milica examines her identity through the origin of her name
and her country's historical background.

The work is shown local in "Aspects/Positions 50 Years of Art in Central
Europe 1949-99," at Museum of Modern Art Stiftung Ludwig, Wien till
Feb.27, to be toured to the Ludwig Museum(Budapest), Miro Foundation
(Barcelona), Hansard Gallery/City Gallery, Southampton this year.

Yukiko Shikata

*further info below;
 ------------------------------------------------------------

on "i am milica tomic"

Milica is looking straight toward us. She looks unprotected with no
make-up yet. By clicking the points which come up at various parts of her
face and shoulders, the statement at her eye appears, "i am milica tomic.
i am ....." in the language of the country written there. Of the indicated
identity, the name is correct, but the nationality/ethnicity is incorrect.
This uncomfortable gap triggers an identity vector that won't accept it.
If consistency were to formulate "truth," truth would be nothing but a
fantasy.

When an identity is expressed, innumerable other identities, which are not
shown, are caused to surface simultaneously, and objectively placed. Here
is also slight inconsistency or a blur between expressed identities; e.g.
between a language and its universally believed nationality, racial identities
and languages, and various linguistic differences in the obviously identical
language. Identification potentially contains inconsistency in itself.

Clicked on, Milica is seen to be bleeding by getting wound=split, and the
wound is gradually shown in close-up. Going further, the picture suddenly
changes to show icons inside the portrait of silhouetted Milica. When each of
them is clicked on, her various identities, whether it is true or not, are
shown
in words. Milica is ready to accept "what I see it not directly 'me': I
identify
with a virtual place in the discourse."* to question the illusory nature of
community.

In this work, clicking is a kind of sensitive pointing or an action to
stimulate or intervene in identity. By continuous clicking, we intervene in
Milica's plural identities, and eventually hurt her. Milica who accepts
coexistence of inconsistent, different identities has to divide herself
because of the wound.

Milica's statement, "i am milica tomic," seems to declare her will to stand
in the front line of identities. But it could be said that, Milica herself
has given up 'I' as the subject, and consists of a centerless virtual place/
void. Humans can not be abstract, but live with their mapped identity. This
identity is, however, projected into their empty subject by others, although
the fulfillment is promoted by themselves.

Alphabets arranged behind her portrait look like a series of meaningless
symbols, but give latent expressions of identities. Blurs return to unstable
color shades (suggestive of various colors of skin), as shown when the work
is loaded, further to a motion of escaping from identification, changing into
different colors, and blurring distinctions between boundaries.
 (Yukiko Shikata)

*"The Indivisible Remainder - An Essay on Schelling and Related Matters,"
Slavoj Zizek, Verso, 1996



Yukiko Shikata, Canon ARTLAB
DK Bldg.5F, 7-18-23 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032
Tel: +81-3-5410-3611, Fax: 3615 http://www.canon.co.jp/cast/
-"SoundCreatures on the Web"(url above)


------Syndicate mailinglist--------------------
 Syndicate network for media culture and media art
 information and archive: http://www.v2.nl/syndicate
 to unsubscribe, write to <syndicate-request@aec.at>
 in the body of the msg: unsubscribe your@email.adress