Ilona Plaum - Presence

Plaum’s 3D maquettes, painted scenes, and photographic flat surfaces are linked by illusions. In these illusions she observes the rules of paradox: she switches between surface and depth perception, and turns backgrounds into foregrounds; shadows become tangible and seem to move. In so doing Plaum transports the viewer from invented spaces to real ones, and vice versa. The small imperfections that she intentionally leaves visible in the work make it clear that the elements of these illusions were created by hand. This momentarily brings the viewer back to the starting point of the work: the moment the artist actually made it.