Exhibition “Us” by artist Ivi Dervishi
The most frequent Ivi’s artistic expressions are graphics and painting, which can be seen in the works created for the exhibition. Ivi Dervishi draws her inspiration from nature, ancient culture, mythology, dreams, current world news and public events, as well as music and personal travel experiences.
Ivi Dervishi (1992) was born in the Albanian city of Librazhd. She studied at the Tirana University of Arts, where in 2013 she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and in 2015 – a master’s degree in graphics. The artist participated in several exhibitions in Albania, Kosovo, as well as in Latvia.
The exhibition “Us” is designed in three, content-varying parts: Antiquity, Humanity and Chaos.
In the Antiquity section of the exhibition, the artist drew inspiration from the history of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. The city was buried as a result of a volcanic eruption in 79 AD. “What happened to Pompeii is a great tragedy, but at the same time this tragedy created a tremendous archaeological wonder,” Ivi herself says. Elements and symbols of Pompeii’s culture and architecture are visible in the artist’s works, synthesizing them with the motifs of the modern world at the same time. The idea is reflected using silk-screen printing technology on a painted background, addressing life, culture, sexuality and death in the pagan world, delving into what was significant then and is now.
In the second part of the exhibition “Humanity” the artist pays attention to the portraits created during her life span outside native Albania. Loneliness, longing for family and friends caused a desire to draw people’s faces. The artist likes to observe people and draw their images on the basis of memories and imagination. The portraits reflect women in which she is fascinated by female beauty and fragility at the same time. They look at the viewer with a direct look, with sadness and big eyes, asking to pay attention to them and start a conversation in order to loneliness. The author admits that the female images depicted in the portraits are often manifestations of her own emotions.
In the artworks of the third part of the exhibition – “Chaos”, the artist directly associates herself with her past. Influenced by pain caused by the divorce of her parents, in childhood she became a very introvert person. Ivi dreamed a lot and went wandering outside her home, letting her imagination be wide and not see the ordinary boundaries of things. It was in her childhood that the artist began to pay more attention to her surroundings, seeing the big picture, recognizing shapes and figures in places that other people do not pay the slightest attention to. It could be a piece of a damaged wall or a broken tile, or an ink stain. The artist herself claims that this process can be recalled by one of the psychological tests of Rorschach. In these tests ink stains are shown to patients who have to give a feedback on what shapes and images they see in these spots in order to determine their state of mind.
In the artworks of the artist there is always the question of what everyone sees in these works. “There is a possibility that the viewer will see the same thing as I do, or the image in his or her mind will appear somehow differently. In some of the works, the most important is the distance, which allows you to see one picture from afar, but looking at the work close up, there are many details and figures that the viewer did not expect to see there.” This is part of Ivi Dervishi’s dreams and nightmares, symbols and images that penetrate her mind.
Ivi Dervishi says about her creative road to art: “I spent most of my life studying art. I first became interested in drawing at the age of seven, when I participated in an art project at an elementary school in my hometown, in Librazhd, Albania. It was a wonderful feeling – to draw a completely ordinary drawing with markers and later to see it at the school exhibition. I occasionally went back to drawing, until at the age of twelve I began to attend drawing classes. As a teenager, I realized that I really wanted to do this, and so began the path to my artistic education.
During my studies I mastered various graphic techniques and most of all I was interested in monotyping and monoprint. However, studying graphics, I gave preference to a technique that creates a unique image or foundation, which I can later tint and expand the idea more widely. I like to create work on paper that already has traces of ink. This is better than on a pristine white sheet. I always wondered why I prefer to create a picture on paper, where there is already chaos, and not the one where you need to start all over again !?”
The exhibition “Us” at the gallery “Romas Dārzs” will be open until July 31st.
