Perhaps we are running out of the past. How else can we account for the widespread impulse to pull different histories into the present? In Present Pasts: Media, Politics, Amnesia, Andreas Huyssen suggests that the problem lies in the relentless acceleration of modern life, which creates mounting obsolescence and a deepening fixation on memory. If we stop collecting fragments of what has been, will anything be remembered at all? And does this act of gathering inventory truly recover the past, or does it merely shape our own illusions of it, as we remain caught in a present that feels increasingly compressed? Is the fragment capable of transmitting a message from the past, or has it merely succeeded in appealing to contemporary sensibilities? Paula Tončić’s artistic practice adopts an expanded archaeological approach, in which she reconfigures and curates gathered archival material to fabricate a fictional memory, a constructed narrative that was never experienced and does not emerge organically from reality.
The exhibition title She’s Playing with a Knife, borrowed from a song by the post-punk band Dobri Isak, introduces both the subject (She) and the object (the knife), positioning the woman within a continuous, historically grounded relationship with material things. Here, the contemporary woman is cast as an evolved gatherer. Paula Tončić’s artistic research centres on the notion of value, questioning what confers it, and whether it lies in financial worth, social meaning, or emotional resonance. Through the collection of personal objects from an abandoned girls’ home, the artist enters a space of privacy and secrecy, asking what may have held “value” for their anonymous former owners. In exploring these intimate remnants, she considers whether worn possessions, keepsakes, and fragments can reveal a distinctly female gaze, offering insight into the nuanced and layered experience of girlhood. With meticulous symbolic precision, the artist’s work brings together a range of social themes related to feminism, viewed through the lens of artistic inclusivity. It addresses issues such as self-punishment, the longing for social recognition, class status, control, and objectification, challenging myths of gender equality and re-examining the discourse around society’s treatment of girls.
Moreover, the selection of materials such as metal, aluminium, and silver underscores the thematic coherence of the work and contributes to a discussion on the constructed nature of value, particularly the increasing monetary worth of precious metals, which mirrors the depletion of resources within the Earth’s crust. Physically, the piece is designed as a site-specific installation with two monolithic aluminium panels. The artist incorporates found objects, and uses laser printing to transfer the image of a striptease artist from an old photograph onto the aluminium monoliths. By introducing this (auto)ironic break in thematic seriousness, she contrasts the monetary value of the artwork with the value of nighttime labour, questioning whether its worth might increase through visual suggestion. Seeking to anticipate the fading physical presence of the owners, the artist affixes mementoes to the panels, crafted by pouring melted cutlery into sand moulds shaped from imprints of found objects. Furthermore, instead of pedestals, the artist uses competition trophies, which, in the context of the work, serve as symbols of social recognition and victory.
The artist expresses a passion for collecting, infused with a hint of voyeurism, through an artist’s book, featuring items sourced from the walls of the girls’ home -posters, letters, postcards, a range of paper materials, and smaller objects – this time presented in a more fragile, tactile, and holistic artistic form. While the monoliths attempt to dominate the exhibition space and make the conveyed messages more prominent, aiming to resonate with visitors and their experiences, the artist’s book remains understated, free from bold statements about values, and instead focuses on the personal stories of the home’s residents. Through artistic processes, it reconstructs their intimacy, making it visible to others and inviting it into a public sphere where exchange and the development of unexpected, new connections are possible.
Paula Tončić’s exhibition is not only a powerful cognitive experience but also an aesthetically captivating and cohesive visual poetics, drawing on influences from fictional literature, trash horror cinema, obscure underground spaces, and environments made from waste materials. The atmosphere, marked by the coldness and solidity of metal, and objects imbued with a sense of anxiety and surveillance, effectively intertwines the personal and universal aspects of girlhood. It reflects on both external and internal psychological and emotional responses to social pressures and norms. In doing so, it brings to light the weight of the formative years, when the essence of who we are begins to take shape and the first struggles emerge between the person we are and the person we hope to become.
Ana Čukušić
Paula Tončić (1997) graduated from the Department of Animation and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. Her work explores metal processing, sound, video, and the practices of archiving, classifying, and documenting intriguing objects, frequently incorporating grotesque elements. Drawing inspiration from fiction and trash horror cinema, her artistic practice reflects a fascination with the boundaries between reality and fiction, as well as the transformation of materials across different media.
