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VOLTA NY 2017

March 1 – 5, 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INSTALLATION VIEW | VOLTA NY | MARCH 2017 | PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY, PHOTO: DAVID WILLEMS

NATASHA MAZURKA | INSTALLATION VIEW | VOLTA NY | MARCH 2017 | PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY

PHOTO: DAVID WILLEMS

NATASHA MAZURKA | INSTALLATION VIEW | VOLTA NY | MARCH 2017 | PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY, PHOTO: DAVID WILLEMS

NATASHA MAZURKA | INSTALLATION VIEW | VOLTA NY | MARCH 2017 | PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY

PHOTO: DAVID WILLEMS

NATASHA MAZURKA | INSTALLATION VIEW | VOLTA NY | MARCH 2017 | PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY, PHOTO: DAVID WILLEMS

NATASHA MAZURKA | INSTALLATION VIEW | VOLTA NY | MARCH 2017 | PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY

PHOTO: DAVID WILLEMS

NATASHA MAZURKA | INSTALLATION VIEW | VOLTA NY | MARCH 2017 | PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY, PHOTO: DAVID WILLEMS

NATASHA MAZURKA | INSTALLATION VIEW | VOLTA NY | MARCH 2017 | PATRICK MIKHAIL GALLERY

PHOTO: DAVID WILLEMS

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX I | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2014

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX I | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2014

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX III | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2014

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX III | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2014

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX II | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2014

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX II | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2014

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX VI | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2014

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX VI | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2014

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX IV | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2014

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX IV | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2014

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX XI | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX XI | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX XIV | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2017

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX XIV | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2017

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX XV | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2017

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX XV | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2017

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX XVI | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2017

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX XVI | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2017

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX XVII | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2017

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | INDEX XVII | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 16.5 X 11.75 INCHES | 2017

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC I | HAND-EMBOSSED PARCHMENT | 12 X 8.5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC I | HAND-EMBOSSED PARCHMENT | 12 X 8.5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC IV | HAND-EMBOSSED PARCHMENT | 12 X 8.5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC IV | HAND-EMBOSSED PARCHMENT | 12 X 8.5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC VI | HAND-EMBOSSED PARCHMENT | 12 X 8.5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC VI | HAND-EMBOSSED PARCHMENT | 12 X 8.5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC VII | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC VII | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XI | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XI | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XII | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XII | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2013

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XIV | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XIV | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XV | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XV | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XVII | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XVII | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XVIII | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XVIII | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017, NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XVI | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2015

VOLTA NY 2017

NATASHA MAZURKA | PHYLOGENIC XVI | HAND EMBOSSED PARCHMENT PAPER | 12 X 8,5 INCHES | 2015

STATEMENT 

Recursion is an installation of embossed drawings and cut-vinyl patterns that focuses on the role of visual syntax in giving order to experience. While Natasha Mazurka’s past work involves intricate mappings and biological simulations, the new work in Recursion looks at pattern as a set of instructions and transactional codes.

Mazurka’s work tests the communicative potential of pattern by sampling and combining visual references from diverse disciplines, including digital networks, bioinformatics, sociograms, and science fiction films.  In a drawing series titled Index, Mazurka has created a set of rules to generate images. This recursive process drives her application of basic marks: lines, nodes, and dashes. The marks are simple in structure, yet through their manipulation they reference complex concepts, underscoring the elegance of pattern’s ability to transform materially and conceptually with limited means. The series references the ubiquity of pattern languages and their role in creating a sense of order. While Index engages with the aesthetic connectivity amongst disciplines, single works elude a fixed reading.

The presentation of the embossed drawings—centered on individual parchment sheets and organized as an index—alludes to the history of collecting and archiving microscopic and macroscopic phenomena. The drawing process involves embossed marks made by hand, producing a fragile and tactile surface that counteracts the digital and non-material references in the patterns.

Mazurka’s new cut-vinyl patterns explore how the syntax we employ to organize  knowledge is a reflection of our thoughts, desires, and anxieties. In the Divide and Conquer Algorithm (2017), the shape of an ornamental dome is described through dashes and dots. The algorithm is used in computer sciences and to translate Morse Code. The dome is based on multi-branch recursion, while the name was derived from military vernacular.

In Ornament is wasted manpower and therefore wasted health (2017), a translated Morse Code excerpt from Adolf Loos’ famous essay, Ornament and Crime (1929), spans the wall in rhythmic notation. For both of the cut-vinyl pieces, the meaning and interpretation of the pattern is fluid and unfixed. Throughout Recursion, both the embossings and vinyl patterns bring out the expansive and transitional character of pattern systems we require to order our experience.

 

BIOGRAPHY 

Natasha Mazurka earned an Honours BA from McMaster University and obtained her MFA from Concordia University, where she was the recipient of the J.W. McConnell Fellowship. Recent exhibitions include Recombinant, Prince Takamado Gallery, Japan; Papier Contemporary Art Fair, Montreal; Primer, Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Ottawa; and Natural Motif, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa. Her work is held in numerous collections including the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, the City of Ottawa’s Fine Art Collection, the Canadian Fine Art Collection of Gotland, Sweden, and in numerous private and corporate collections in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Morocco. She has received grants for creation and production from the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Ottawa, and participated in residencies including the Brucebo Fine Art Fellowship and Residency, Gotland, Sweden; the Vermont Studio Center Painting Fellowship and Residency, Johnson, VT; and a Media Arts Creation Residency from DAïMON, Gatineau, Quebec. Mazurka is the Chair of the Fine Arts Program at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario. Natasha Mazurka is represented by Patrick Mikhail Gallery in Montreal and Ottawa.

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