Linda Čihařová

The work of Linda Čihařová has a multimedia focus with a wide span of visual expression. She works with new technologies, her projects are conceptual, often on the border of interactive performances. She uses new media in combination with drawing, painting, video and photography. Her basic source of inspiration is landscape and the natural living environment under the influence of human impact, where she discovers various possibilities for inter-class communication. She is also interested in scientific methods during the research of natural and ecological processes.

While Čihařová studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (studio of Adéla Matasová and later studio of Jiří David, 2002-2008) she was influenced by living on the southern periphery of Prague for several years, where she examined her solidarity with the surrounding nature and found answers in her distinctive painting metaphors (series Ecosystems; Ecocreatures, 2003). Her thesis work was the project Emolandscape (2008, exhibition TINA B., Gallery Vernon), expressing the bond of man with landscape in a study of his feelings in nature, where the artist wanted to create emotional typology of the landscape. Based on an interactive video projection she created a map of a landscape 1 km2 large, where the viewers were able to play the video of places of their choice. There were nine places recorded at night time using artificial light – flashlight, car headlights or spotlights from a searching helicopter. After that she created scientific projects such as Streptomyces (2007) from photographs taken in the laboratory of bio-informatics at the Institute of Microbiology of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, monitoring regulation processes in cells. Subsequently, she started a new concept of drawing on photographs called Photodrawings (continuing since 2008), where the artist’s fantasy was inspired by landscape details according to which she created mini-stories from certain localities. Drawing became an expression of personal reading in a given environment and she created psychological stories of these places. The most developed form of this concept was the project Migromat, 2009 (Vernon Gallery) – a video poem and interactive installation on the topic of migration in landscape, where, through the movement of man, meanings shift and visual perception changes and images in the human mind are interwoven.

After graduating from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Čihařová went to Holland for a study stay, where, inspired by the local landscape, she created in 2009 a video project called Neverlands. It was an installation of 16 ceramic embossed boards, modelled according to various parts of Holland’s landscape, spread on the floor in a way for the viewer to choose and pull out any board from the sub-projection of water above its surface, after a moment, however, it was once again covered by the image of water. In another project called Average Place (2009) she compared visual stimulations of our living environment with the visions in our hearts. An average example was perceived as something that is a specific place and stands out with specific life inside. In her series Nanosociety (2009) she once again confirmed her interest in examining natural phenomena with a scientific base, where this time her inspiration came from photographs from an electron microscope including organic shots all the way to inorganic crystals. These were once again supplemented by drawings which, in the black and white nano-landscapes, evoke shapes of various beings. The artist was given the opportunity to document research done by the Faculty of Chemical technology in Pardubice and South Bohemian University in České Budějovice, which revealed unsuspected matter inside natural structures. This is also where the series Zoom in Scapes (2009) originated as a landscape discovered by realistic images from a microscope. Later the series Morfy (2009) is created from images capturing the correlation of fauna, flora and landscape.

Čihařová’s longing for expression in colour eventually led her to working with watercolour, where she proceeds in a similar way as in her photo drawings or nanosociety – in an abstract foundation she searches for subconscious shapes and stories. Once again she uses combined technique with photography and she engages the viewer in her interactive installations. This concept applies to the current series’ One Family and Metamorfis, which continue to convince us about the never ending potential of transformations in life and in lifeless matter.

Spolupráce s vědeckými laboratořemi a workshopy: Zoom into Scapes – Jihočeská universita v Českých Budějovicích (laboratoř digitálního zobrazování ústavu Akademie věd), Doc. RNDr. František Weyda, CSc Výstava Nanoscope, 2009: spolupráce: Fakulta chemicko – technologická v Pardubicích, Andrea Kalendová, PhD. Výstava – „Infiltrace do Mikrosvěta“: spolupráce Jihočeská universita v Českých Budějovicích (laboratoř digitálního zobrazování ústavu Akademie věd), Doc. RNDr. František Weyda, CSc Festival Enter: spolupráce Institut mikrobiologie – laboratoře bioinformatiky na AVČR, Ing. Jiří Vohradský Ph.D.

Keramické setkání, 2012, text Dita Hálová

Krajina magická, 2012, text Markéta Kroupová

Inscape, 2005, “Humorg” 2006, “Urban Kiss” 2009, “Hloupé a chytré” 2010, From Different Corners, 2011-12, texty Vlasta Čiháková Noshiro

Článek o performanci “Sklo vyteklo z prasklé vany” v New York Times, 2010, Dinah Spritzer

Kick the Habit, 2010, texty Klára Vomáčková, Ula Schneider, Taťjana Langášková

ENTER 3 Multimediale. 2011, text Denisa Kera