Tereza Stehlíková works as an artist, filmmaker, writer and associate lecturer in animation. She is currently researching towards a PhD (both in theory and practice) at the Royal College of Art, in the tactile language of the moving image.
She teaches animation theory and practice at the Universities of Westminster and Bedfordshire. Previous positions have included a visiting lectureship at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design.
Tereza’s solo exhibition, Interior Constellations, for Kingsgate Gallery, London, featuring new film, photography and assemblages, showed in September and October 2010. Her solo photographic exhibition, Sensory Strata, was shown at Pages of Hackney during November 2010. Her group exhibition, Just Under the Surface, took place at the Crypt Gallery, London (2011), as the first event organized by Art in Touch, the tactile arts network she founded in 2009.
In 2007 Tereza co-founded the publishers Go Together Press and as well as Artesian, its house journal of committed creativity in art and life. Her photographs were recently published in Railtracks, a collaborative dialogue between the writers John Berger and Anne Michaels. Tereza’s illustrated book for children, The Story of Violet, became the Czech representative of a pan-European Children’s Literature event at London’s Topolski Centre in 2010.
Her films, which have been shown in various international film festivals, include Melusine, a collaboration with the award-winning filmmaker Grant Gee and The Perpetual, with an original score by the acclaimed sound artist Scanner. Fingertips, an extended collaboration with experimental musician Philip Jeck, resulted in a projection for live performance that toured internationally.
Golden Well, a text and moving image installation made with Jon Wozencroft, was shown in Silo space, Porto. The Flight of Bazelon was chosen for inclusion in dvd editions of the magazines Shots, ZOO and Creative Review.
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Artist Statement
In one of his writings about nature Jung expresses his view of matter as the spirit as seen from without. This idea captures my artistic project: to use the material as a gateway to accessing the inner world of objects, buildings or landscapes.
"Depth is hidden. Where? On the surface." says the Austrian novelist and poet Hoffmannsthal, as quoted by Calvino in one of his essays. In the materiality of things, whether man made or natural, memory is inscribed. By touching rocks or ordinary every day objects, we connect not only with their inner worlds, but also with their stories. For me, one of the primary ways for accessing the depth that lies on the surface is through the sense of touch.
Tactility is the main focus of my practice based PhD research, which I am conducting at the Royal College of Art. As a filmmaker my challenge is to find methods of translating tactile, embodied impressions into the expressive vocabulary of film. By accessing embodied memory, I aim to ground the viewer, deepening her experience and understanding, and inviting her entire body to participate in the cinematic encounter.