Absence Presence, 2000

Cast and carved plaster – 330 × 240 × 110 mm

Bónyai Barbara’s Absence Presence is a sculptural object rich in symbolic content, built upon the principles of optical illusion and perceptual ambiguity. The work explores the cognitive nature of vision, the relativity of perception, and the conceptual dialectic between presence and absence. Its production process – beginning with the creation of a clay face-mask, followed by a negative cast in plaster, and culminating in an expressive reworking using an angle grinder – embodies a unique synthesis of classical sculptural traditions and industrial tool use.

Light plays a pivotal role in the installation. When illuminated from below, the concave facial form within the plaster block appears to the viewer as a three-dimensional positive. In this way, the work becomes a kind of camera-less projection, casting itself outward: absence transforms into presence, and through the play of shadow and volume, the certainty of visual reality begins to unravel. This perceptual paradox engages the viewer on both sensory and philosophical levels, prompting reflection on the constructed nature of reality and the fallibility of human perception.

Absence Presence is one of the early and emblematic pieces of Bónyai’s Contemplative Cycle, marking a period of sculptural and installation-based experimentation around the turn of the millennium. This body of work is characterized by a meditative sensibility born of the convergence of Eastern and Western philosophical thought, a contemplative approach to material and form, and a deeply aestheticized mode of social reflection. The piece resonates with other light-based explorations from the period and evolves in tandem with the artist’s kinetic sculptures, camera obscuras, laterna magicas, and light-driven animations.

The conceptual and formal duality of the work – negative and positive, absence and presence, matter and light – mirrors Bónyai’s broader visual thinking, in which material is not a terminal medium but a philosophical conduit. In this sculpture, the viewer’s position is not only central to the visual experience but also to the generation of meaning itself: it is the viewer who activates the work through their own spatial and cognitive engagement.

Thus, Absence Presence is more than a formal experiment – it is a cartography of the liminal spaces between perception and consciousness, an optical paradox that compels us to question what we truly see when we look.