Artificial Tears By Evelyn Bencicova

The series ‘Artificial Tears’ explores the subtle, uncanny melancholy characteristic of Bencicova’s work. As in her previous projects, the images appear loosely retro-styled and are starved of saturation, reduced to barely-there blues, greens and yellows. In this series, Bencicova’s muted tones are concentrated around the lone figure of a woman, who expresses quiet body language of despair, helplessness and sorrow. Bencicova stirs a presence of mystery around her subject’s identity and despondency by hiding her face in the majority of images. However, with the tendency to conceptually point at experiences under defined socio-political circumstances, Bencicova splashes the imagery of ‘Artificial Tears’ with visual signifiers of domesticity. This creates room for a sociological interpretation of the series, exploring the roles, expectations and pressures of a woman in society.