70 x 50
mixed media
Metal fluff
Author: Gabriela Prochazka
LIGHT MESSAGES: The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought
Supported by:
Czech Centre
Czech Embassy in Sweden
Also projected as a part of Culture Night of Stockholm at The Castle
Many thanks to:
Michal Brenner
Jonas Johansson, Visualia residency
Hugi, Blivande
HERE MAY BE DRAGONS
The outcome of VISUALIA residency, Sweden, 2022
hosted by: Jonas Johansson
video projection collaboration: Annie Tadne
Inspired by Norse mythology, runestones, and memories of events that may or may not have happened.
Broken flowers
light intervention, digital photography
Early blossom is out of sync with species depending on its so-called “ecological mismatch” plants and hibernating or migrating insects, birds, and other wildlife are no longer synchronized. This leads to species collapse because they simply can’t adapt quickly enough.
While it could be difficult for people to see the significance of average 1C warming; according to scientists, herbaceous plants produce flowers an average of 32 days earlier, blossoming trees 14days sooner since 1793.
ETERNAL SUNSHINE
30 x 30
UV print on aluminium
MELT
44 x 27
metal, lacquer, light refracting pigment, light source
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
exhibition in collaboration w / Oliver Torr
curator: Daniela Kramerová
Bubec studio, 2022
metal, various light, and sound sources
In between light reflections, metal drawings, and sound resonance installation.
photos: Fabiana Mertová
NRGY–Metal & Neon Light
NRGY
metal, neon light (argon gas), lacquer
110 x 55
Inspired by the ephemerality and potential of argon gas to get electrified with high voltage, become plasma, and conduct metal.
In the making of this piece, we could find similarities with the automatic drawing movement that is made possible by suppressing consciousness and rationality and letting go of the process of creation itself. The drawing technique with the plasma cutting has a particular look because of various depths that could be achieved once the metal melts and sensory limitations due to the protective suit worn by the artist.
Argon gas was used for welding, plasma cutting, and inside the glass tube conventionally known as neon light.
Ghost In The Shell
3D print, lacquer, pigments, UV print, plexi, led lamps
video loop
curator: Petra Housková
photos: Roman Valenta, Táňa Takáčová
Šopa gallery, Košice, Slovakia
Inspired by the biomineral process of mollusks.
The solo show is an outcome of a 2 months KAIR Košice residency.
Just because the sky turned from grey into blue
neural networks, video projection, plexiglass
sound design: Nathan Solo
Data from the NASA archive were fed into a neural network algorithm, which generated a series of images that become mixed with the original input data, and the calculation in between the particular images became a video output that mimics the night sky.
According to the astronomers, 99% of the European Union population live in areas with light pollution and therefore are unable to see properly celestial objects. Before artificial lighting was invented, the night sky was used for navigation, there were stories and myths about the constellations and their meaning. Yet in the 21st century, we’re more likely to see pictures from NASA than see the night sky with our own eyes. Does the approximation of pixels become the destiny of humans?
We are looking at the same sky, but we’re seeing radically different things.
The butterfly effect
3D print of an enlarged moth brain and neuron connections, upcycled computer display, light source
Outdoor artificial lighting is one of the driving forces of an insect and moth decline. According to scientific studies about 1/3 of insects swirling around artificial lighting dies by morning (fall prey or exhaustion).
Moths and other nocturnal insects are disappearing because of their fatal attraction to light. (They were supposed to navigate through stars)
Less visible, possibly more damaging effects are changes to predator-prey and plant-pollinator relationships that can reverberate through ecosystems.
Contributed this piece to an exhibition about the negative aspects of light pollution.
Gallery Hraničář, 2021–2022
Study of naturality: water
land art ~ light intervention
video stills
Does what we create justify what we destroy?
Compared to the timeline of the Earth, human life spans are but a speck of dust, yet as a species, we are leaving irreversible traces in the landscape, that will still be noticeable long after we are all gone. The losses of habitats and primal nature are usually justified by the resources we need (minerals, wood) and therefore seen as development at the expense of nature. Whether there is a chance for sustainability depends on shifting the anthropocentric worldview and placing us not above but as a part of the whole – as we are – yet strangely – we have somehow evolved to forget this.
Inspired by the book of Arthur Koestler – The Ghost in the Machine. The work attempts to explain humanity’s self-destructive tendency in terms of individual and collective functioning. Especially by the concept of a h o l o n (holos, ‘whole’ and -ον, -on, ‘part’). The term holon refers to the idea that something is simultaneously a whole in and of itself and a part of a larger whole (for instance, trees and seeds are a perfect example of a holon).
collaboration: Gabriela Prochazka & Michal Blecha
sound: Elephant by Loke Rahbek & Frederik Valentin
graphic design: Marijn Degenaar
production: Václav Kovář
many thanks for consultation: Martin Janoušek
untitled (It’s always you)
Study of materiality; metal 003
(it’s always you.)
upcycled metal
70 x 38
Drawings are made by the artist with a full circuit of 330V electrified plasma.
Intergalactic tendencies
mixed media 70×70
Inspired by the ideas of the microcosm-macrocosm analogy.
untitled (For me staying. For you going.)
Study of materiality; metal 001
(For me staying. For you going.)
upcycled metal
80 x 45
Drawings are made by artist with a full circuit of 330V electrified plasma.
Sensory Test
Sensory Test
13min
audiovisual intervention
projection, RGB led lights, hazer
Project by: Gabriela Prochazka & Lunchmeat studio
concept / creative direction: Gabriela Prochazka
animation: Pavel Žáček
sound design: Ondra Mikula
typography: Anymade studio
voiceover: Justin Lavash
photography: Lukáš Havlena, Filip Kustka, Jakub Doležal
untitled (Because there is this void in me.)
Study of materiality; metal 002
(Because there is this void in me.)
upcycled metal 85 x 65
Drawings are made by the artist with a full circuit of 330V electrified plasma.
Opening performance: Ponec – dance theatre
photos: Martin Kubalec, Gabriela Prochazka
13min, multimedia performance
laser, video projection, prismatic foil, 2 channel sound, 9 performers
For the special opening of the dance theatre Ponec’s 20th season I created a space that started out as a light installation and gradually turned into a proper dance party. The idea was to give the dancers a chance to work themselves into the ecstatic or almost trance-like state that can sometimes occur at rave parties and which embodies total freedom of body and mind – that moment when nothing else in the world exists except for the music and the body moving with it.
A laser drawing was projected onto the building’s facade and into a special prismatic circle that was hung above the entrance. The wind interacted with the circle, and so sometimes the projection mapping worked precisely, but at other times it was more up to luck. This created a sense of playful chance, which was dependent on the weather conditions at the time.
Concept, creative direction: Gabriela Prochazka
Laser, light installation: Gabriela Prochazka
Support: Lunchmeat studio
Sound: Oliver Torr
Choreography: Jindřiška Křivánková
Performers:
Viktor Černický
Cecile Da Costa
Markéta Jandová
David Králík
Tereza Lenerová Hradílková
Žaneta Musilová
Jaroslav Ondruš
Jazmína Piktorová
Ester Trčková
Special thanks to:
Václav Kovář
Ondra Eliášek
David Vrbík
Eliška Kociánová
Jan Slanina
Light Messages III.
Laser intervention at the Počerady coal-fired power plant, the largest polluter and producer of greenhouse gases in the Czech Republic. It emits 5.5 million tons of CO2 and 223 kg of Mercury into the surrounding landscape every year, yet is only able to make use of 1/3 of the energy it produces.
“We act locally, but our activity is global. Similar artistic interventions are taking place around the world. We don’t have a second planet. Humankind must unite to save it. We are not activists, we are nature protecting itself.”
Inspired by global activist movements, post-internet culture, and claims, the projections on cooling towers included messages including, “Shit is fucked up and bullshit,‘‘ “#nofilter,” “I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit,” “We’re losing time,” as well as information on the toxic waste it produces, and, of course, classical ‘‘Stop coal.”
Made by Czech light artist collective to support local and global climate movement.
Photos: racek
Supported by: Lunchmeat studio, Greenpeace Česká republika , Limity jsme my Extinction Rebellion, Hnutí Duha, Fridays for Future & many more …
Good Citizen (video art)
www.goodcitizens.info
sound design: Jesse Osborne Lanthier, Ondra Mikula (AID KID)
graphic design: Matej Moravec
The project takes us into a dystopian news channel where a synthetic avatar presents us in a confident voice with the dos and don‘ts of our era.
What is the relationship between media and politics?
With the rise of deep and neural networks, a new question arrives, who are these people and what the f*ck are they smiling at?
Hermetic understanding of technology might account for its perceived errors by pointing out that reality is never that simple but that there’s always a meaning beyond the meaning, that answers can be multiple, contested, and potentially infinite.
The project was created during the artist’s residency at Instrument Inventors, Hague, NL. Preview during No Patent Pending, Rewire festival 2020.
Minimal Solo 2.0
GOOUT office light design 2020
concept & creative direction: Gabriela Prochazka
collaboration: Filip Mirbauer
Forbidden
𝙁𝙊𝙍𝘽𝙄𝘿𝘿𝙀𝙉 /45min/
CGI movie x concert x performance
The end of the world was never this fruitful 🍎
What can have a movie screening, concert, clubbing, and performance art in common? In this project we’re testing the borders: join us on the journey of our danse macabre where the audience, performers, and art forms melt together.
From neo-Tarkovsky footage about anthropocene to a techno party.
Please note: It is not required for the audience to just sit on their seats.
creative direction: Gabriela Procházka
concept: Gabriela Procházka, Anna Ribanská, Jindřiška Křivánková
music: LOFN
choreography & performance: Jindřiška Křivánková, Anna Ribanská, Václav Kovář
set design, light design: Gabriela Prochazka
video art: Michal Žilinský
costumes & make-up: Andrijana Trpkovič
typography: Petr Fašianok
technical support: Gomi Fernandéz (Lunchmeat studio)
The project is realized with financial support by Ministery of Culture of the Czech Republic.
Dates:
6.12.2019 Lunchmeat Festival National Gallery, Convent of St.Agnes, Prague, CZ
17.7.2020 Festival Nultý bod, Studio Alta, Prague, CZ
Light messages II.
photos: Petr Zewlak Vrabec, Martin Janousek
The aim of the art intervention was at one hand to focus on the local problem but also to point out its global outreach. The projected claims were linked to some of the famous pop-culture memes as well as to similar art initiatives happening all around the world. The other aim of the art intervention was to try to answer the question if and how art in public spaces can help to accent the problems of the global society.
According to ecologists, the Chvaletice power plant has a huge impact on climate change, burning brown coal from the North Bohemian mines, thus emitting a large number of toxic substances such as mercury and carbon oxides into the air.
The actions of ecological activists draw attention to the fact that if the Czech Republic does not cease to burn coal by 2030, it would not meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement from 2015. The Czech government is far from setting any detailed plan for phasing out coal power plants. On the contrary, it was just recently that the Chvaletice power plant was provided an exception from the European limits for the carbon oxides and mercury which are going to be implemented in 2021.
Many thanks for your support:
Lunchmeat studio
Limity jsme my
Greenpeace CZ
NEON CHAMBERS
Ctenophora
International Festival of Technologies, TU Delft, NL
50 x 90cm
sound design: Aid Kid
video snippet: https://www.instagram.com/p/BjxFItFhw2w/
3CZ 1234
cages, incandescent light bulbs, 8 channel sound
sound design: Robert Lippok
technical sketch: Filip Mirbauer
production: Vojtech Loskot
technical support: David Fernandez
The name of the projects paraphrases the code labeling of eggs from battery cage breeding. The objective of the installation is to bring awareness of the life of laying hens.
In some cages were hidden facts from industrial farming:
The hens live their whole life on a surface which is not much bigger than an A4-sized sheet of paper.
Factory farms often use light intensity to influence the animals behavior and biorhythm.
There are more chickens in the world than there are any other species of bird: more than 20 billion of them are reared annually for food.
Battery cages are the least respectful form of housing hens.
Factory farmed animals never get out to fresh air, nor do they ever see the Sun in their entire lives.
Made as a supporting installation for a campaign of non-profit organization Obraz-Obranci zvirat.
www.obrancizvirat.cz
Diagonal Light No.1
collaboration: Filip Mirbauer
Permanent lamp object installed in Polagraph Gallery, Brno
Light Messages I.
concept, creative direction: Gabriela Prochazka
photo: Martin Janousek
Guerrila laser projection, Prague
Ongoing questions if & how could possibly new media art in public spaces shape and bring awareness to global issues.
Supported by: Lunchmeat studio
In Rainbows
photo prints, 420 x 594 / 297 x 420
Galerie Cella, Bludny Kamen, Opava, CZ, 2018
This photographic collection explores the light bending phenomenon and it’s correlation between science and art. Visual dynamic structures suggest that light is a potent medium, able to create ephemeral scenes reminiscent of abstract art movements. When darkness is a canvas, and light is a paint.
The concept of each composition was cautiously built from prismatic materials around a source of a light and projected on a flat surface.
Images were photographed as they appeared to the naked eye.
Sky, Snow and Broken Sword
pics by: Evelin Belincakova, Paul Henschel
Gabriela Prochazka – direction / light design
Ichi Go – dance
Arielle Esther – sound design
Georg Werner – sound and light interface
Eyal Meistel – costume design
contemporary dance performance with elements of butoh
(butoh; also known as a dance of darkness)
In the first state, man and sword become one and each other. Here, even a blade of grass can be used as a lethal weapon. In the next stage, the sword resides not in the hand but in the heart. Even without a weapon, the warrior can slay his enemy from a hundred paces. But the ultimate ideal is when the sword disappears altogether. The warrior embraces all around him. The desire no longer exists. Only peace remains. – King of Qin, Hero
trailer / 2016
supported by Adam Csoka Keller, Eveline Belincakova, Sandro Mosco
Premiere:
18.3. 2017
DARKIDENTITIESDARKBODIES: Spektrum, Berlin, DE
Close (Known) Distant Worlds
4.11. 2016 / audiovisual performance with Vida Vojic (SWE), Spektrum, Berlin
performance here
installation / self-made visual machine, various liquids, light transmitting materials, ink, brushes / dimensions variable
These macro and microscopic visuals are a result of continuous investigation of pure materiality and what they could possibly tell us about how this universe was made. With the use of various common materials, these abstract organically structures collages emerge.
In daily life, one tends to disregard seemingly ordinary moments of passing natural elements, but when sculpted and captured in time, observation of these structures, might lead us into philosophies such as wabi-sabi which represents Japanese aesthetics and world view. Sometimes described as one of beauty that is ‘imperfect, impermanent and incomplete’. Understanding emptiness and imperfection was honoured as tantamount to the first step to satori, enlightenment. The idea is, that being surrounded by natural, changing, unique objects helps us connect to our real world. In one sense wabi-sabi is a training whereby one might find basic, natural objects interesting, fascinating and beautiful. Wabi-sabi can change our perception of the world to the extent that a chip or crack in a vase makes it more interesting and gives the object greater meditative value.
« To see a world in a grain of sand And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. »
– William Blake
Schrödinger’s cat
video of audio set up { heart beat } here: https://vimeo.com/172349786
installation / cat skull, various light sources, black velvet, speakers
Schrödinger’s cat is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. The scenario presents a cat that may be simultaneously both alive and dead, a state known as a quantum superposition, as a result of being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur.
The work is Memento mori which has been an important part of ascetic disciplines as a means of perfecting the character by cultivating detachment and other virtues, and by turning the attention towards the immortality of the soul and the afterlife.
We can see a part of a dead cat, to which a new life is given with light sources – fluorescent tubes ad LEDs, and illusion of a life beat with speaker turning themselves on/off.
Kraken
Kraken Signal festival 2014 from Gabriela Prochazka on Vimeo.
audiovisual underwater installation
Vltava River, Prague, CZ
computer, open source softwares, microprocessor, digital LED lights, light transmitting materials
1800 x 500 x 100 cm
,,An uncertain world lies under the water surface.”
Kraken is a cryptid = from the Greek κρύπτω, krypto, meaning “hide” is a creature, whose existence has been suggested, but has not been discovered or documented by the scientific community. Legendary sea animal, gigantic in scale. It is said it lives in the northern seas. This time it arrives in Prague. One can miss it during the day, but not at night time, when it starts its own visual show, putting us in mind of the bioluminescent powers of deep water creatures.