The multitalented Indira Cesarine relishes the spiral. Her newest series of animated photographic light paintings employing this ancient symbol constitute the “Lumière” Series. Logarithmic and equiangular, the curve repeats scales and is thus considered fractal. I had the pleasure of witnessing the phygital presentation (pairing digital artwork with physical works) at The Untitled Space gallery in Tribeca last month… amid some notable characters, as expected.
When asked why the ‘spiral’, Indira references the ‘ancient symbol’, designating historical Fibonacci Spiral found throughout nature: ‘DNA, whirlpools, progression of energy, higher consciousness, change’. She notes:
“My work is about putting things out there in a forward-thinking way to enable progression and change.”
Her former sculptures too embody the uncannily recurring fractal.
“There’s something about the spiral that keep drawing me in.”
The light paintings are about physicalizing the hidden energies we all feel… intuitions… gut feelings… heat upon first meeting someone. Indira works specifically with dancers to generate that physical and spiritual energy.
Her process involves first photographing a model, then running behind her as she poses with a bright laser flash light. The icon then ‘creates the shapes’ in tandem with the dancer moving… “I work with dancers primarily.” The leaves and vines are inspired by Mother Nature… Eve… Aphrodite… Woman as life source. Insert a ‘long exposure’ alongside a ‘trick of the light,’ and boom:
“I’m physically in the photos. You just can’t see me.”
Irony … Magic. ‘The camera is sensitive to the brightest point of the light, so maybe in 1 out of 100 exposures, you can see traces of me in the image’, relays the artist. The images are then printed on aluminum and metallic prints. Transposing these remarkably, hypnotic images into her “LUMIÈRE” Series Wearable Art collection too, dresses, frocks, bags, and more will soon sport the abstractions in silk, leather, and other thoughtfully curated fabrics.
It doesn’t stop there, of course. Not when you take a multi-talented powerhouse like Indira and connect her to digital art expert Jessica Marinaro, senior director of NFT platform MakersPlace. Having worked in the gallery scene for two decades, Jessica relishes helping people explore boundaries available amid new media. Creative technologies supply a “bold innovative new space with gold” she notes, citing the “wide spectrum of work available out there.” Citing the “broad, speculative nature of NFT’s and of artists hoping to give provenance to the invaluable,” Marinaro had me finally fathoming the value of the trend. NFT’s grant individuals a secure transactional record of who bought what, resulting in artists obtaining assets of value. The equivalent would be ‘edition prints’ in photography—or owning original vinyl records.
“The state of the market is volatile, sure, as it is tied to crypto; there is speculation. Nevertheless, you see exceptional art.”
Projects like Indira’s also amplify Female Empowerment, which is particularly notable with the center of the NFT space. The hope to authenticate pieces by assigning secure transactional record via blockchain assigns them value.
“There is a more democratized landscape [within the NFT space] through which women can break through more easily. A male dominated space—67% are males; we have a way to go, but the path is open, and the opportunity exists.”
Heretofore, Indira devised a digital presentation pairing physical photographs with an animated digital asset; you buy them together. Turning the exquisite photographs into NFT’s compelled the artist to play around with light paintings and animate them to the point of BREATHING.. “People say they are breathing,” notes the artist proudly.
Photos by: Jade Greene
