Photographed at The Parthenon
Vesna Pavlovic speaks about her work with the speed and intellect that comes from working in academia.
"My art is not about the object being presented," she says, her clear blue eyes at once focused and opened wide, "but the act of viewing itself." Her medium is the actual process of creating photographs — in lenses, slide carousels and transparencies — and how that process relates to memory. She also makes traditional flat photographs, but since she discovered the metaphorical weight of archaic photographic equipment, her process has expanded exponentially.
"When I first began working with slide projectors in graduate school, I had an almost physical reaction to it," she says.
In 2009, the Serbian-born Pavlovic moved from Seattle to Nashville to teach art at Vanderbilt, and since then she has helped raise awareness about Nashville's art scene on an international scale. She's not the only locally based artist whose work shows outside of Nashville, but she's certainly the most visible. Pavlovic's Projected Histories was last year's only solo show from a locally based artist on view at the Frist Center, which put her in the company of the Frist's highly successful Andy Warhol exhibit. After that, Pavlovic was invited to participate in the prestigious Istanbul Biennial alongside artists like Henrik Olesen, Glenn Ligon and Raymond Pettibon. Pavlovic continues her reign as Nashville's most international artist, beginning 2012 with a solo show that's currently on view at Zeitgeist, as well as another solo show in France. She also has upcoming exhibitions in Bucharest, Copenhagen, Washington, D.C., and a 2013 exhibit in Belgrade.
Her work is a combination of musings on national identity, the idea of place, and the phenomenon of tourism in modern America. She's been called a Serbian artist, a Serbian-American artist, and a Nashville-based artist — but really, she's an international artist who has taken Nashville along for the ride.
"Hopefully my exposure spreads awareness," Pavlovic says with both seriousness and levity, "that visual art is an important activity in town."
The People:
The Legend: Little Jimmy Dickens
The Community Builder: Dan Heller
The Power Couple: Peter Depp and Kristin Vasquez
The Broadcaster: Tom Randles
The Barber: Mark Walker
The Internet Star: Jessica Frech
The Teacher: Gatluak Ter Thach
The Chef: Laura Wilson
The Councilman: Fabian Bedne
The Saxman: Bobby Keys
The Coach: Ed Temple
The Networker: Liza Massey
The Designers: Jamie and the Jones
The Enforcer: Brian McGrattan
The Bird Brains: Birdcloud
The Poet: Sebastian Jones
The Geeks: Janet and Mike Lee
