Artist Statement
Australian artist Petra Svoboda has focused her research on the impact of Japanese Popular Culture in modern society. In her work she examines the recent wave of Japanophilia through the mediums of Anime and Manga, designer collectable toys, and computer games. Petra situates her work within a Pop Surrealist genre with a focus on transforming soft inflatable commodities into hard metallic looking objects through the process of ceramic casting. Her piece’s titled Gokko-Inu (Make Believe Dog) and Gokko-Neko (Make Believe Cat) deal with the phantasmagorical notions of illusion and play, creating a trick of the senses through the transformation of materials.
Bio
In 2009, Petra received an Australian Postgraduate Award and a Zelda Stedman Travel Scholarship. This enabled Petra to embark on an international exchange to Scandinavia. While studying at The National Academy of Arts in Oslo, Petra developed her current body of work with the help of highly skilled tutors at the art school. Petra also took the opportunity to examine and research the strong connection between Scandinavian folklore and national identity. This research informed her practice and consequently many of the narratives in her work have a provenance in folklore. Following her 5 month exchange in Norway, Petra went on to do a residency at The International Ceramic Research Centre in Denmark. Here she worked on similar concepts that related to contemporary notions of play.Petra Svoboda completed her Masters of Visual Art at Sydney College of the Arts in 2010.
Petra's website
