2021
To See Stars over Mountains, 2021
365 works on paper; collage and drawing on inkjet photo
Installation photo: Stephen White & Co
–
To See Stars over Mountains is a year-long project undertaken over the course of 2021, during which the artist produced a new work on paper each day.
The photographic source images used in these works were largely taken on Horvat’s daily walks in the parks local to her North London neighbourhood, whilst a smaller number of them arise from the artists’ occasional travels in and, later, outside of, the UK. Consequently, amongst her recurring documents of urban green space and housing blocks there are occasional views from trains or planes, as well as images from walks in more distant locations. These changes of landscape and context in the second part of the year – after the UK-wide lockdown of the first six months of 2021 – expand the language of the work, before familiar corners and views of North London return. In one subset of pictures – forming a stark counterpoint to the motion and exterior spaces of the rest – Horvat marks a ten-day period of Covid-related self-isolation with a series of views of a residential street as seen from a bedroom window.
The 365 works that make up To See Stars over Mountains transform these photographic documents in a variety of playful and provocative ways. After printing each day’s photograph on her home inkjet printer, Horvat responds to, and reinvents, them; sometimes drawing on top of the image or collaging different things onto it, other times making cuts or tears in the paper, or else reorganizing the space of the page by folding or relocating parts of the image.
The full series of 365 works on paper – a diary of sorts as well as a thoughtful reimagining of the landscape and its possibilities – is gathered in a 376-page book of the same title, accompanied by an essay by the writer Lauren Elkin (author of No. 91/92: Notes on a Parisian Commute and Flâneuse: Women Walk the City) written in response to the project. Published as a collaboration between PEER and Unstable Object, publication date: February 2022.
The book is available to buy here.
–
The series was first shows in By Hand, on Foot – Horvat’s solo show at PEER London in 2022.
–
Press:
Times Literary Supplement (pdf) – May 2023: Short text on To See Stars over Mountains by Lara Pawson.
artforum.com (pdf / link) – March 2022: Critic’s pick review of By Hand, on Foot at PEER by Jonah Goldman Kay.
Camera Austria (pdf) – March 2022: Review of By Hand, on Foot at PEER by Orit Gat.
Studio International (link) – Feb 2022: “Vlatka Horvat – Interview.” In conversation with Veronica Simpson.
recessed.space (link) – Feb 2022: “Vlatka Horvat’s collages landscapes.” In conversation with Will Jennings.
Era Journal (link) – Feb 2022: Review of By Hand, on Foot at PEER by Romilly Schulte.
Vijenac Literary Magazine (link) – Feb 2022: Feature on By Hand, on Foot by Flora Turner-Vučetić (in Croatian).
Evening Standard (pdf / link) – Jan 2022: “Culture in London: the faces to watch in 2022 – Visual art.” Feature by Ben Luke.
a-n (pdf / link) – Jan 2022: “This month’s must-see exhibitions and events” by Ellen Wilkinson.
Hackney Citizen (link) – Jan 2022: Preview of By Hand, on Foot at PEER by Lizzie McAllister.
