The exhibit brings together assemblages, image transfers, and photographic prints that evolved during a three-week residency at the Vermont Studio Center (VSC) in the fall of 2025. This period marked a transformative shift in her practice.
 

While in Vermont, Spasic was inspired by the beauty of the VSC campus located along the Gihon River. She often got up early to watch the sun rise and take morning walks through the village campus and down to the riverbank. She took snapshots of the early light and stopped at the sculpture studio for inspiration, rummaging through piles of wood and metal scrap. Captivated by the accidental geometry of cuts left behind by other resident artists, Spasic collected these rejected pieces and brought them to her studio.
 

This intuitive gathering opened a new direction in exploring materiality through metal, stone, and wood assemblages. Select photos from the morning walks were transformed via a rudimentary image transfer technique into evocative and tactile residual effects. Their physical fragility and suggested ephemerality stand in stark contrast to metal pieces. The juxtaposition of industrial materials assembled with tenuous balance and the fragile process of creating image transfers also created opportunities to introduce elements of accident, chance, and the unexpected.

 

After the residency, back in her Maryland studio, Spasic shifts to other materials and intentionally seeks out unpredictable, faulty mechanical methods of creating photographic prints as a means of visual exploration and expression.

Prototypes and Simulacra captures the serendipity of material discovery and the dynamic momentum of a newly discovered artistic process.

 

-Milena Spasic