Title
Portrait Of The Deity (Ritual Supplication)
Date
2014-Present
Medium
Performance documentation as digital color video, with sound, 5:02 min.
To watch the video of the live performance
Click on the image︎︎︎
Medium
Performance for video as Three-channel digital color video installation, with sound, 5:13 min.
To watch the preview of the performance for the video
Click on the image︎︎︎
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Medium
Digital C-print triptych, framed, with a bronze-casted plaque
Dimensions
Center piece (Freja): 40 x 22.79 inches (101.6 cm x 57.8 cm)
Left, Right pieces: 28.5 x 22.79 inches (72.3 cm x 57.8 cm)
Edition
1 of 3 + 1 AP
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Medium
Eight digital C-prints with handwritten text and marks from bloody knees and corn kernles
Dimensions
16 x 12 inches (40.5 cm x 30.5 cm)
Edition
1 of Each
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Medium
Engraved wooden box with three compartments containing bronze-casted corn kernels, blood stained cloth rag, dry corn kernels
Dimensions
29 x 9 x 8 inches (73.6 cm x 22.8 x 20.3 cm)
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ABOUT THE PROJECT
I wanted to attempt a self-portrait that would prove cathartic; prove revelatory. I decided to put myself in a situation where I would experience the feeling of being ashamed, feel uncomfortable physically and mentally, and then capture it with the camera. I thought back to my childhood in Borovo Selo (Former Yugoslavia) and the humiliating punishments enforced in school: I had to kneel in the classroom corner for hours on dry corn kernels in front of the whole classroom. The punishment was very embarrassing, and I often felt ashamed. I wanted to channel this feeling of shame, this moment when all I could think of was to perish from my submission. Since the civil war of former Yugoslavia in 1995, I moved a lot from place to place, and through this journey I met many people who were very significant to me and the development of my identity. Few I loved, desired, admired, worshipped. Few I grew to disgust. Some grew to disgust me. And some I hated for many reasons. Each one of them has played a formative role in my life. As I grew closer with some, I grew separate from others, which allowed me to realize the psychological impact of these relationships. They were simply displacements for the lack of attachment to my mother: an attachment I have always struggled to understand. I wanted to make myself feel shamed by and for them through my own submission to their powers. Portrait of the Deity glanced backwards to the space and time of a younger me and those people of whom I became attached. The performance enacts a ritual of supplication, coalescing these psychological and physical difficulties of my becoming.
Performed by Branislav Jankić with:
1) Freja
2) Gianpaolo
3) Borislav
4) Dorothea
5) Daria
6) Igor
7) Masha
8) Goran
9) Nicola
10) Giovani
Portrait Of The Deity (Ritual Supplication)
Date
2014-Present
Medium
Performance documentation as digital color video, with sound, 5:02 min.
To watch the video of the live performance
Click on the image︎︎︎

Medium
Performance for video as Three-channel digital color video installation, with sound, 5:13 min.
To watch the preview of the performance for the video
Click on the image︎︎︎

Medium
Digital C-print triptych, framed, with a bronze-casted plaque
Dimensions
Center piece (Freja): 40 x 22.79 inches (101.6 cm x 57.8 cm)
Left, Right pieces: 28.5 x 22.79 inches (72.3 cm x 57.8 cm)
Edition
1 of 3 + 1 AP

Medium
Eight digital C-prints with handwritten text and marks from bloody knees and corn kernles
Dimensions
16 x 12 inches (40.5 cm x 30.5 cm)
Edition
1 of Each
Medium
Engraved wooden box with three compartments containing bronze-casted corn kernels, blood stained cloth rag, dry corn kernels
Dimensions
29 x 9 x 8 inches (73.6 cm x 22.8 x 20.3 cm)





ABOUT THE PROJECT
I wanted to attempt a self-portrait that would prove cathartic; prove revelatory. I decided to put myself in a situation where I would experience the feeling of being ashamed, feel uncomfortable physically and mentally, and then capture it with the camera. I thought back to my childhood in Borovo Selo (Former Yugoslavia) and the humiliating punishments enforced in school: I had to kneel in the classroom corner for hours on dry corn kernels in front of the whole classroom. The punishment was very embarrassing, and I often felt ashamed. I wanted to channel this feeling of shame, this moment when all I could think of was to perish from my submission. Since the civil war of former Yugoslavia in 1995, I moved a lot from place to place, and through this journey I met many people who were very significant to me and the development of my identity. Few I loved, desired, admired, worshipped. Few I grew to disgust. Some grew to disgust me. And some I hated for many reasons. Each one of them has played a formative role in my life. As I grew closer with some, I grew separate from others, which allowed me to realize the psychological impact of these relationships. They were simply displacements for the lack of attachment to my mother: an attachment I have always struggled to understand. I wanted to make myself feel shamed by and for them through my own submission to their powers. Portrait of the Deity glanced backwards to the space and time of a younger me and those people of whom I became attached. The performance enacts a ritual of supplication, coalescing these psychological and physical difficulties of my becoming.
Performed by Branislav Jankić with:
1) Freja
2) Gianpaolo
3) Borislav
4) Dorothea
5) Daria
6) Igor
7) Masha
8) Goran
9) Nicola
10) Giovani