Ghosts of Rorschach

This art series examines the intersections of dance, art, and psychology, with a specific focus on the continuum of ambiguity of human perception, inspired by the concept of the Rorschach ink blots. In this series, I use dancers’ bodies to create shapes that begin to be reminiscent of the symmetrical inkblots of the Rorschach test, and then continue to blend the reality of the photograph to create work that appears more like a random inkblot and less like the defined human form. Big thanks to Ian Sparks, Dyana Sonik-Henderson, Broken Rhythms Victoria, and Dance Victoria for collaboration, inspiration, and support throughout the creation of this series.

The series started with these mixed media visual art pieces that I was working on.

For one of the pieces, I wanted to use some dance photographs. Below is the image that started the photography aspect of the series. I started playing around with a photograph that Ian took of me and this was the result. You can see it above incorporated into one of the paintings.

Concept/editing: Alina Sotskova. Original photograph: Ian Sparks.

I liked this four-legged ballerina creature I created. I wanted to experiment further, so I did a small test shoot, using myself as the model, to see what else could come of creating Rorschach-type ink blots from a photograph of a dancer’s body. Jordan Reichert took a series of pictures for this shoot, and I used these for the creations below.

I liked the results of the test shoot and wanted to expand the series. Through the magic of Twitter, I got in touch with Dance Victoria, who generously offered us studio space, and Dyana Sonik-Henderson, the Director of Broken Rhythms Victoria. Dyana’s dancers were incredibly fun to work with and the following are creations that resulted from a new shoot.

Concept/artistic direction/photography/editing: Alina Sotskova.

Photography Consultation: Ian Sparks

Models: Broken Rhythms Victoria dancers.