Slow Tap Dancer

Artist statement:

Slow Tap Dancer is the foundational sculpture of the "Ballerinas" series — a series that emerged from an unusual, almost fateful moment of observation and imagination. While waiting for materials delivered from Strojopromet and time stretching into hours, I watched forklifts moving loads across the yard. Their repetitive actions — lifting, turning, accelerating — struck me as a kind of dance, as if they were participating in an invisible choreography set to classical music. I recorded that spontaneous “dance,” capturing the rhythm and grace of the machines.

That footage became the starting point for the first sketch of a ballerina with a block‑shaped head, originally conceived with the intention of projecting the video onto her surface. As the work evolved, the video became a backdrop, and the figure gained a wind‑up mechanism, like a music box, that would play the sounds of the forklifts and encourage movement. Over time that mechanism wore out, so I decided to finally install the bronze sculpture on a stone pedestal — anchoring it firmly forever — while still presenting the original accompanying video work that started it all.

The work is grounded in contrast — the contrast of colors and tones, materials and textures, fragility and roughness, light and shadow. The warm caramel tone of the clay forms meets the dark, rugged mass of stone and stainless steel; the grace of the body balances with the architectural weight of the pedestal; the rhythm of movement meets the stillness of mass. This sculpture embodies the unexpected poetry of motion found in everyday machines, transforming the banal into the sublime and inviting the viewer to discover dance where it is not immediately seen. It is a celebration of rhythm, contrast, improvisation, and the continuous connection between human expression and the forces that surround us.