Skowronska conceives of an exotic cellular solar eclipse with the minute virus, configured of a glowing corona surrounding a central sphere orbiting within its vast sub-visual universe. The planetary phenomenon metaphorically mirrors the obliterating darkness and shadow cast across the Earth by the global pandemic; while the subsequent emergence into light is a radiant symbol of hope at its passing.

Central to the exhibition is a sublime immersive video installation, Deep Eclipse. It embraces multiple scenarios simulating sequences and clusters of the mutating SARS_2 virion. The inherent beauty, singing colours and jewel like encrustations of the molecule’s whirling orb is explored close-up as a minute speck, from both inside and from afar as it trails ribbons of sinuous dancing colour into deep, deep infinite dark. Elwira Skowronska developed the programming for the 3D installation with software engineer Rafael Formoso and 3D modelling by architect Lara Clemente, while Artist-in-Residence at the world leading iCinema UNSW Centre for Interactive Cinema Research, at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

A series of Eclipse paintings is created in Skowronska’s distinctive style. Myriad meticulously applied and layered minute paint particles in a limited palette of hues of a single colour morph to reveal a spherical form visually embedded within the paintings’ square formats.

Eclipse 1 is in celestial blue-on-blue, its palette restricted to resonating hues of cerulean, cobalt and ultramarine. Eclipse 2, in the way of the virus, is a variation or mutation. It is the same in composition and size, but a different order and ratio of a similar blue colour palette.

Smaller paintings, Eclipse 5 and Eclipse 6 shimmer with silver and gold, evoking the deep darks and glowing aureoles of lunar and solar eclipses. Nascent orbs evolve here also, emerging optically within the surfaces of silver and gold leaf and glinting metallic paint.

A lab-like group of assemblages, Gamma and Lambda, encapsulate layered images of massed virus particle populations on transparent film and metallic paper. The artist harvests and manipulates the digital virus images into spherical formats and patterns which she reanimates and reconfigures at will to form her micro-universes. Housed within acrylic boxes framed in fluoro colours they shimmer and gleam like exotic scientific specimens.

In Deep Eclipse, through adaptation of innovative algorithmic techniques and her distinctive meticulous pointillist painting style of optical reveal, Elwira Skowronska romantically re-imagines the micro-cellular world of the sinister virus to embrace a new manner of sublime that is at once terrifying, yet undoubtedly mysteriously alluring.

Barbara Dowse
Curator

Deep Eclipse_Void (excerpt)
2022
4K single channel video
Edition of 1 + 2 AP
3 minutes

Deep Eclipse_Starburst (excerpt)
2022
4K single channel video
Edition of 1 + 2 AP
3 minutes

Deep Eclipse_Gravity (excerpt)
2022
4K single channel video
Edition of 1 + 2 AP
3 minutes

Elwira Skowronska is a multidisciplinary artist focused on exploring the invisible sublime world of minutiae that envelops us at micro-scale. After completing a Masters degree at National Art School in Sydney she pursued her research into the aesthetics of the nano world with an Artist in Residency at La Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and a doctorate at Sydney College of the Arts.

Driving her creative processes is a desire to depict this invisible yet ubiquitous universe that underpins existence. Her work is based on translating recent scientific discoveries such as the infinitesimal Higgs Boson particle into perceptible form. These nano depictions are created by using a matrix of computer graphic particles that are converted into painterly dots, printed specks and videographic pixels. Her first interactive video artwork was selected for exhibition at the ZKM Media Museum, Germany. It explored the way digitally generated imagery can enhance the way we sensorially experience minutiae. This involved computer animation to create an immersive experience where thousands of particles behaved dynamically in their interaction with viewers, enabling the viewers to collaboratively reassemble the particles and create unique virtual worlds. The work was developed across five iterations for highly esteemed international venues, most recently the 25m wide planetarium dome in Experimenta, Heilbronn, 2019, Germany. Currently, Elwira is an Artist in Resident at iCinema UNSW working on the exploration of the microbial world using advanced digital technologies.

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