Elwira Skowrońska is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the invisible world of minutiae that underpin our world. Her work constitutes a new type of sublime composed of micro infinities, vastly different to the traditional Romantic sublime of large-scale and boundless spaces. After completing a Masters degree at National Art School in Sydney she pursued her research into the aesthetics of the nano world with an Artist in Residency at La Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and a Doctorate at Sydney College of the Arts. Driving her creative processes is a desire to depict this invisible yet ubiquitous universe. The work is based on translating recent scientific discoveries such as the Higgs Boson particle into perceptible form. Her nano depictions are created by using a matrix of computer graphic particles that are converted into painterly dots, printed specks and videographic pixels. Her portfolio consists of complex abstract paintings that depict landscapes of particle dots as well as 3D assemblages that allow viewers to move with the particle specks and interactive videos that enable the audience to transact with the pulsating pixels. Her first interactive video artwork was selected for exhibition at the ZKM Media Museum, Germany. It explored the way digitally generated imagery can enhance the way we sensorially experience minutiae.
Deep Eclipse is a three-part video comprising Starburst, Gravity and Void. Each part simulates different clusters of the mutating SARS-CoV-2 virus. The inherent beauty, vibrating colours and jewel like encrustations of the molecule’s whirling orb is explored close up as a minute speck, from both inside and from afar as it trails ribbons of sinuous dancing colour into a deep infinite dark. At first sight in the laboratory, using a transmission electron microscope, the virus cell looks like a solar eclipse. As we draw closer we discover its highly individuated particles known as virions that conjure a mysterious space of countless minutiae. Like Alice’s “looking glass”, the work evokes the dynamic and luminous world beyond its darkness, to reveal a galaxy of particles oscillating beyond our imagination.