GUESTS work in progress

I am currently developing a project which is looking at the relationship of archive/photography/memory/history and the storytelling, fiction and fantasy in the context of labour and migration. The project grew out of the British Council residency, in Berlin, February and March 2009, when I researched the mass labour migration from the socialist Yugoslavia (SFRY) in the 1960's and 70's to the Federal Repubic of Germany. I became particularly interested in the stories and photographs, of the 'guestworker' women who arrived to West Berlin between 1968 and 1973, to work for large electrical and telecommunicaton companies. To read more about my research and to follow the development of the project please see http://guestworkerberlin.blogspot.com

Berlin residency was part of the program curated by Peter Cross for the group exhibition "Journeys of No Return", scheduled to take place in Berlin in 2010. The residency was funded by the British Council.

Photograph from the personal album
of the 'guest worker' who wished to
remain anonymous, Potsdamer Straße, Berlin 1969

CLOTHES FOR DEATH
Series of photographs and short videos
from 2006 - ongoing

'Clothes for Death' (Odjeca za Smrt) is an ongoing research based project documenting women in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina who prepare clothes in which they wish to be buried. Deeply moved upon hearing about this relatively unknown and quite private custom I set out to research it further, taking the ritual as a window into exploring questions related to social and cultural constructions of death and dying. As well as reflecting on wider contexts the resulting works intimately engages with the lives of women whose identities have been shaped by turbulent historical, political and cultural currents.

For further images and information please click here.

GRADUATION DRESSES
Series of photographs
from 2005 - 2007

‘Graduation Dresses' is an ongoing project consisting of a series of photographs I take of young women, who have recently graduated from secondary schools in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their dresses, made by my mother who runs a sewing business from her home, are based on images found on the Internet, fashion magazines and on television, of celebrities and models wearing haute couture dresses. I photograph them in their homes and through this engagement with their personal spaces capture a significant moment in that transitional journey from adolescence to womanhood, revealing both their incipient maturity as well as their vulnerability.

For more images and info on the project please click here.

Radionica: Coffee/Kafa and Desa
Short films, 7' and 3'
2005

As part of the Necessary Journeys travel bursary I spent a month recording a working life at my mother's made to measure tailoring business that she runs from her home. The footage recorded reflects a life inside this fashion conscious, and somewhat out of place flat, removed from the daily realities of life in Bosnia. It reflects on the intimate nature of the conversations between women while getting their clothes made, and on the slippage between the private space of home and the public space of work. Here both those spaces converge to create a curious theatre of fashion, gossip, glamour, friendship, politics and coffee.

For more images and info on the project please click here.

Short Hi-story of My Family
performative lecture, 2008

'A Short Hi-story of My Family’ is a performative talk weaving threads between (hi)stories of the artist’s grandmother, mother and her self, through videos, photographs, personal documents, Gobelin embroideries and copies of haute couture dresses. By excavating stories and creating images, cutting and re-stitching them again, this live collage will explore the relationship between translation and language, labour and gender, migration and art. Wearing her own original copy of a haute couture dress, made by her mother, Kern creates new narratives and myths in an attempt to reorder, re-imagine and re-tailor History.

Short Hi-story of My Family has been first performed as part of the Performing Rights Glasgow. A longer and extended version took place at The Courtauld Institute of Art as part of East Wing VIII: On Time, on the 20th June 2008. Further images and text to follow.

image: Grand Mother’s Gobelin (after Self-Portrait with Daughter, by Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun), 2008

God is the biggest Artist
performance
2008

Prior to coming to Zadar, my thoughts were turning around the similar questions as proposed by the 'Back to Heritage' workshop/residency: how does what I create (some might say 'produce') as an artist, sit in relation to the capitalistic value system? How much is any artistic practice (or at least some elements of it) inherently utopian? Is that a sign of courage or naivety or courage to be naive? How much of the relation to art (and to artist) is informed by the values inherited from religion - artist as a messenger, messiah, restorer of faith? Is 'socially engaged' art a substitute for religion? Continue reading...

Leave to Remain
2003 - 2005

In 2003, I initiated and curated an exhibition of works dealing with the experience of exile, by artists who are exiled. Titled 'Leave to Remain', the project showcased 11 artists, whose works ranged from painting, sculpture to installation, connected by a thread of enquiry into notions of belonging, home, identity and displacement.
For further information about the project please visit www.leavetoremain.org
To read a recent article What Remains published on the Refugee Week Blog, please click here

KOLACHNIKOV
2005/2007