Martina Grlić is one of the brightest artists of a new stream of Croatian realism which focuses on the figurative in art and on the narrative potential of the painting. The methodology of her work includes exploring the political, economic, and social heritage through the deconstruction of politics of memory, image reading, and gender aspect. The method she uses is based on ethnography and autoethnography of everyday life and popular culture as well as the transformation of found imagery into the painting background. Grlić explores the phenomenon of memory and reminiscence focusing on changes that took place, and are still happening in post-socialist society.
The name of Grlić's solo show comes from the term «hypermnesia» - denoting the type of memory impairment, its pathological amplification, an abnormal condition that may manifest as the retention of a large number of insignificant details in the memory. Hypermnesia usually occurs as a result of affect, hypnosis, or narcosis. Blending fictional elements and images from archival photographs capturing the once-existing reality, Martina Grlić reflects on the memory uncertainty, the elusiveness and ambiguity of memories, and fragility and transience of life.
Hyperbolized everyday objects - festivity attributes, children's toys, baubles, Christmas decorations - deprived of their usual context, are moved into the realm of the transcendent, symbolic, and surreal. By referring to a world that no longer exists, the artist recreates memories that go beyond any straightforward autobiography - her nostalgic works become a reflection of a public social stance, a set of fantasies, and naive superstitions.
