B. Laborcz Flóra (Budapest, 2004)

THE SYMBOLS OF FLORA B. LABORCZ The lack of time and space hinders us in making an attempt of searching for in-depth contemplations regarding the different variants of characters and creative attitudes of sculptural art. We must limit ourselves to the simple finding of facts that the most relevant feature of each human-artistic manifestation of Flóra B. Laborcz is the sensitivity , the hardly hiding anxiety, the seeking of way for a solution, the challenging of the limits of possibilities - and sometimes even exceeding them!, and the delight in making experiment. We can immediately add to all this enumeration with no risk at all that her talent coupled with the merits if her personality and artistic skills contribute jointly to the multi­tude of unparalleled, and undeniably genuine works of art. Flóra B. Laborcz belongs to the group of those artists who do not have one single and exclusive type of sculptu­re, yet her works can be easily and promptly identified. Her knowledge about the material dating back to the per­iod while she was a goldsmith, and the high standards in the formation of the material serve as a solid bases for the flight of her form- and space-forming sculptural practice. The most remarkable feature in her oeuvre is, however, the great variety. She plays in an unusual large scale and she switches easily tone in terms of material, composition and technique. She uses traditional materials: stone, bronze, cupper, wood, iron - and new ones as well taken from other branches of art such as paper, textile, rope, glass, wire, paint etc., and she applies them in pure form, independently or in unusual combinations. In some of her works - and this refers mainly to her installations - the direct light or its reflection serve as "material" , likewise the artificially created space or the one cut out from nature. The structural and plastic solutions of her works of art speak about an impulsive process of creation sparked with spiritual energies. The scale overarches the opposing qualities between traditional sculptures placed on a pedestal and the installations which are almost fighting with the forces of gravitation, imitating flotation or play of the clouds and expressing mobility. The different stages of the process offer example for many variations. Strained closed and open form, contoured plain form, stone sculpture carved from a block or just fit together from individual pieces, a palm-sized relief, medal, small handful sculpture, sculpture made of ready-made elements, regular or amorphous flat graphic sign fixed on a wire which is drawing mysterious shadows on the ceiling and on the walls - all these may appear in this sculptural framework. The artist owes plentiful and adequate means which help her envisioning that inner emotional world, passion and mood which she reproduces in the form of signs and symbols. She takes sources for her inspiration from the objective world, but the motifs placed in a different dimension and framework loose their meaning and produce a new quality. From what has been said above it is clear that the current problematic which appears in different periods of the oeuvre gives priority either to the material, to the compositional organization or to the technique. Accordingly, the ideas placed from the particular into the general take their shape in different form. The pursuit for symbolic repre­sentation is observable almost from the very beginning. The hereby presented "symbols" selected from the stream of works of the last half decade give evidence - besides their novelty - of a certain pursuit for synthesis, too. The mobile installation entitled the "Cloud" with its immaterial light and engine-like energy undoubtedly writes into space the nostalgia of the former cloud-sculptures. The aim of pointing back to the historical past and heritage appears in the gothic elements of building, from its association mo­tifs (ladder, grid) of the compositions (Imagined construction, TransubstantiationJ.The "Kneeling Clouds" taking the shape of painted steles with their delicate line art "forced" to the earth follow an opposite pursuit to the aim of we­ightlessness which are undoubtedly discernable from the works of art. As if the idea hidden in the ancient form would suggest that our flight of fancy is being limited by unchangeable reality of our earthly life. The row limes stone block along with the joint of steel-drawing from Marosvásárhely which repeats the shape in the form of line expresses this constraint to the earth (The Science of Space), which despite of its heavy weight stands with the grace of easy floa­ting in the shadow of the trees of the park. The flat stone sculpture weighing heavily on the earth scattered but still having a compact form cut by engravings has an unambiguous meaning. (Scattered and Collected). One may also discover the motifs of longing for the rise in the works of art which reduce the plots and characters to stylised signs (sailing boat, slab of stone) and ultimately includes them into a process. Her installation called Homage à Marcel Proust is one of this kind where the reduced coloured "drawings" are lining on suspended textile bands - following perhaps the logic of the plot. Similar light figures are "floating" around us high up in the air and as a counterbalance to them we find "tied stones" hanging above the floor. The flexible arch of the "Personal Memorial Place" is a geo­metric space-form reduced to the extreme simplicity. It also comprises ancient symbols which are rising above a soft pillow. This is counter balanced by metal elements reminding us to the clouds or to the winding of prehistoric reptiles thus producing a tension and its solution as well. All this, of course, is only one possible way of approaching the works of art of Flóra B. Laborcz, which both indivi­dually and collectively contain many layers of ideas. Thus they offer many varieties of interpretation: both for the eye waiting for a celebration or for the intellect searching philosophical depths. Nándor Salamon, art historian

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