Event 2: Eli Joteva

Event 2: Eli Joteva

This past Tuesday I went to the Eli Jotova’s opening exhibition at the Broad at UCLA. I had read briefly that the display dealt with cryo materials which definitely peaked my interest but I still had no idea what to expect. When I entered, there was a small map showing the layout and it mentioned how certain parts of the exhibit dealt with past, future, or memories. I first walked over to this ice sphere that had an assortment of colors. I was hanging by a rope from the ceiling and below it was a metal pan to catch all of the water that fell off the melting sphere. What was interesting about this was that on an adjacent wall, there was a live projection of the droplets hitting the puddle in the metal pan. This was one of my favorite parts of the exhibit because I felt the ripples the droplets made were beautiful and it was cool that I could see it up close thanks to the projection on the wall. 

 Next, I went over to an ice sphere that had leaves and flowers within it. It was set up similarly with this time a small glass bowl beneath it. What was interesting about this was that there were strong floral aromas coming from this part of the exhibit. I enjoyed it and felt that it was relaxing. This sphere was also not melting as quickly but instead had frost all over it. I feel like this added to my calm feelings since it all was stationary and unchanging.

 Finally, I went to the downstairs part of the exhibit and saw that there was a projection on each of the 3 walls. These projections appeared to be the ice spheres I had seen earlier upstairs. It showed a sped up rotation of the spheres so that it could be seen from all angles. I appreciated this because it allowed me to see smaller details that I wouldn’t have been able to notice otherwise. I spent a large amount of time here mostly reflecting on what I had seen and how ultimately it made me feel relaxed and somewhat at peace. I feel like the only thing I would have preferred is if there had been perhaps labels by each of the parts of the exhibit. This would have helped me so that I could understand what the spheres were made up of and what I should be thinking as I was at that particular part of the exhibit.

After seeing this exhibit, I did research on other cryo-artwork that had a connection with nature. There was a lot of ice sculpture artwork but nothing like what I saw in the exhibition. Eli Joteva’s artwork is truly unique and incorporates nature as well as technology in a creative way. I thought it was very valuable to see how nature and technology don’t have to work against one another but can be used to complement each other.

References

"23 Breathtaking Ice and Snow Formations." Demilked. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2017. <https://www.demilked.com/winter-snow-natural-ice-art/>.

"Affordable Elegance." Ice T Ice Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2017. <http://iceticeart.com/>.

"Art in Nature." Our Nature. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2017. <http://artinanature.weebly.com/art-in-nature.html>.

"Art in Nature Antarctica." Ottsworld Unique Travel Experiences. N.p., 02 July 2015. Web.

Jotova, Eli. 2017. Digital and sculpture. Broad, UCLA.

LA Ice Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2017. <http://www.laiceart.com/>.

"Nature Macro Winter Reflexions Textures Ice Art Water Frozen Sculptures " Nature: Nature Macro Winter. N.p., n.d. Web.

"Sculptural Ice And Snow Formations Shaped Into Art by Nature." Homesthetics - Inspiring Ideas for Your Home. N.p., 02 Dec. 2014. Web.

Zella, Carmen. "Creating Connections With Nature Via Art." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Feb. 2014. Web.