DISTURBED SYMMETRY 

Éva T. Bortnyik and Csaba Tubák





Name: Éva Tubák Bortnyik (b. Kolozsvár, Rumania, 1945), Csaba Tubák (b. Kolozsvár, Rumania, 1943),

Address: Bossigasse 16/5, A-1130 Wien, Austria

E-mail: tubak@chello.at

Fields of interest: light- and video-installations, light objects, painting.

Exhibitions: 

Symmetry and Asymmetry, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, 1989

Ars (Dis)Symmetrica, Water Tower Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, 1993

Super 8Lives, Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, Austria, 1996
Beyond the Art, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary, 1996

New Gallery Graz, Austria, 1997

Perspective, M?csarnok, Budapest, Hungary, 1999

International Light Symposium, Eger, Hungary, 1996, 1999, and 2002.

 


 

 
Éva T. Bortnyik and Csaba Tubák have been dealing in their works with the phenomenon "light" since the eighties. Beginning with traditional film-projections, later they turned to "expanded cinema", then - through video- and light-installations - they got to the present intermedial creations.
 

 

EXHIBITION ITEMS

1 "The profile of Symmetry – Symmetry profiled"

Moving an imaginary symmetry-axis, a two-dimensional symmetry-plane comes to existence. On both sides of this virtual symmetry-plane we can find a transparent imprint of the same composition. As a result one can experience different imprints ("profiles") of this double-picture composition, depending on the point or angle the picture is being looked at.
 
 

Figure 1: Symmetry profile (20 x 20 cm, films, wood, glass).

 
 

2 "Disturbed Symmetry"
 

With the help of two video projectors set up parallelly the same geometrical animation will be projected two times /partly overlapping/ onto a black screen, where the picture becomes colourless. A white horizontal cylinder is located in the center of the black background (Fig. 3). The two projected pictures differ from each other, since one of the projectors always shows the mirror-image of the animation. Consequently, the symmetry-axis runs vertical in the middle of the picture (Fig. 4, 5, 6).

Figure 3: Disturbed Symmetry (video projection with two projectors, 150 x 60 cm, detail).


 
 

 
 
 
Figure 3, 4: Disturbed Symmetry (video projection with two projectors, 150 x 60 cm, detail).



 

The clear symmetry we get this way will be "disturbed" during the performance through the interference of the artist. For instance through the rotation of the white cylinder around its own axis, so that the picture appearing on its surface does not correspond to the otherwise symmetrical general view (Fig. 6). Also, the mirror image projection can be switched for normal during the performance, so that a parallel picture, without a symmetry axis is being created.

 

Figure 5, 6: Disturbed Symmetry (video projection with two projectors, 150 x 60 cm, detail).