Title of work: Electrolyte

Artist: Judit Fritz

Konstfack, Ädellab

ABSTRACT

How much of the ocean have I filtered while in tears?

Many times, while growing up on an island have I laid eyes on the enormous surrounding body of water and wondered – is the sorrow still in there? In small portions the human body and the bodies of nature exposes each other as part of their own content. Offering a glimpse into a constant material flow. Diffusing the boundaries between object and subject. A material flow that makes it impossible to tell what anything really is, because it has already evolved. My tears taste like the ocean. So does my sweat. I Find comfort in knowing I constantly take part in something that is beyond my human comprehension. That I don’t need to fully understand why I am here, because it is obvious that I, and everyone else play a part. We just don’t know the whole scene.

Though a post humanistic angle I have investigated the close relation between matter, material, the human body and the bodies of nature, to find a connection point which decreases the hierarchy between object and subject. By crystallizing matter derived from human body fluids and building a machinery that portrays the process I invite the perceiver to a closeup of their part in a never-ending system. The agency of this project is to raise questions rather than finding answers, as I believe the human is in need of reevaluating their way of thinking when it comes to material and resources.

I have tried to shift focus from the human perspective and self-centeredness into a set where we participate rather than being the perceiver. Alchemy was used as both a method and as an art historical reference, as the alchemical mindset is to learn through the act of making. This has been blended with modern days technology and imagination to build a body of work that balances between science and art. While being heavily based on theory and research, the body of work is a translation in which I allowed myself to freely portray how I imagine the travelling of matter is systemized. I created a working place where studies of the unseen is concentrated and visualized. Where the many sorrows and the hard work of human beings crystallize into solids, becoming nature again. Or was it ever not? And vice versa.

Throughout the project, even though separated from everything that I connect to being human, the crystals made from pure matter derived from sweat and tears could not be separated from the knowledge of their origin. Even as objects, I see them as subjects. A conclusion that shed light upon the relativeness between bodies. A conclusion that brings life into what is often seen as dead, simultaneously showing the complex machinery of an emotional being.