Installation: 4 reliefs (CNC technology) and 4 photographs (digital print on acrylic support)
dim: reliefs (each): 80 x 80 cm; photographs: 60 x 60 cm
The crystal structures are microscopically analyzed using computer programs, which allow the simulation of mapped image projections into the inverse (reciprocal) space. The manipulation or reduction of data using filters in the domain of inverse space – which is considerably more complex than real space – and the subsequent projection of the motif (based on the partial information) back into the real space generates a transformed version (copy) of the original image. As a result of this mapping (IFFT) the motif is still recognizable; however, the original form has been changed.
Ground reliefs are based on and developed through such mappings and modifications of the image, which was created during the process of microscopic observation of the carbon substance (see the work Reciprocity). The three-dimensional imprints of images, which were created by diffraction in the inverse space (the filters used in this procedure are illustrated by the graphics on the wall), express the similarity embodied in diversity (dissimilar similarity) and from this perspective represent polymorphic imprints of this particular sameness.
The procedure involved in digital mapping and spatial projections, which shape the transformations of the same motif, metaphorically address questions of perception and the selective operations of the psychological structures (perception filters) that define them. These serve to express the idea that our reality is a complex imprint of reciprocal (multidimensional) space, while the polymorphic shape of the visible is created out of the subjective nature and conditions of perception. – Uršula Berlot, 2017
'We are thus dealing with an artistic response to the situation of elite techno-images (...) The significance of Uršula Berlot’s exhibition (Polymorphic Imprint) does not lie so much in the usage of images created through a procedure that would be called »measurements« by researchers, but rather in the artistic solution that the artist offers and with which she establishes the link between the visible and the invisible; nanotechnological research investigates phenomena which are at least five times smaller than the wavelength of light, which is why they are not perceptible in the medium of light.
A web search with the keyword »nanoart« reveals a chaotic multitude of approaches, for example, we often come across the procedure of colourising images generated by the scanning electron microscope. What is the artistic answer to the question of the so-called nanoart in the case of Uršula Berlot? Her opus follows an independent and powerful trajectory of art and research, which offers a well-thought response to the question raised. Fine art has been from the outset committed to visible light, but at the same time signals of the visible are necessarily transmitted by media, and both poles seem to be crucial for Berlot’s work. From afar, we could note that her artworks limit themselves to the black-and-white spectrum, but a more attentive look allows one to notice that what lies at the centre of her opus is actually light itself. - Aleš Vaupoti?, 2017 (excerpt from the text Vaupoti? Aleš, The integration of Nanotechnology Research in Fine Art: Polymorphic Impression of Uršula Berlot. Likovne besede/Art Words, 105. Ljubljana: ZDSLU)