Sims stuck in cinder blocks and watermelon volcanoes are only a few elements of the surreal pieces Nicoleta Mureş creates. Informed by her studies at the University of Art and Design in Cluj-Napoca, Mureş produces digital collages which combine the mediums of photography and 3D design in order to create satirical, socially relevant commentary pieces.

As the pressures of isolation, disembodiment, and consumerist culture become more and more prevalent, Mureş uses her art in order to create ironic think-pieces which showcase dystopian future at its’ extreme. We’re laughing while we’re crying, and as her digital universe casually catches in flames, we spoke to the creative regarding her technique, the impact of her pieces within the digital and physical world, and how the realm of art is expanding to encapsulate more than we ever could have anticipated.

Hey Nicoleta! How have you been? Getting up to anything exciting lately?

Hello! I’ve been very good, recently I have been featured in a show by ArtSect Gallery X Digi.Gxl X The Immersive Kind and other collaborators, which will repurpose the Heizhaus building in Nuremberg, Germany for a public projection mapped screening. I am lucky that my works are displayed alongside amazing artists, meanwhile I am working on the upcoming shows & collaborations.

Sounds busy, but also very exciting! I am actually obsessed with the way your work encapsulates surrealist humor. I think the rise of absurdist memes has really transformed irony and satire into its own hierarchy of art. With your own history of studying painting at University, how do you feel about the notion of hierarchies within art? And by extension, do you feel that your work subverts or transforms how people tend to conceptualize this?

I think hierarchy of art is part of the past because artists today can work in any discipline and easily switch back and forth, but mainly because they usually choose to work in a multimedia way. It seems to me that in recent years people are more keen on experimental, unusual, undefinable practices erasing the boundaries of art genres and maybe some people see my works in the same category too.

This shift is so necessary – as the potential of art expands, there can’t be a static hierarchy to evaluate it upon. Your work is a collage between the real and the unreal, which I feel turns a photograph into a hyper realistic image, and the digital models you design into these uncanny avatars. What do you think is the greatest strength that comes from posing these worlds against each other within these images? What do you hope to draw from them?

The interchanges between these two worlds come from the contrast they create. I’m living in a place that is full of contrasts, where a grey landscape can have a lot of shiny, colorful intruders, but you have to notice how the truth or reality is hidden by the fascinating duties of everyday life.

I think folks are aware of the dystopian direction humanity is aiming at, but I am exaggerating and making things up so that we can also make fun of the situations that we can’t change or make us feel miserable.

It’s the perfect defense system in a way – make the issue so big and so exaggerated that there’s no way to ignore the humor of it. I love how every piece feels almost out of pocket at times – do you have any favorite works that you’ve created? What’s a piece that you catch yourself thinking back on?

Funny to ask that, a mother could never choose her favorite child (at least in my case). Each piece was born at a specific time in unique conditions, and then carefully nurtured into this world so I really enjoy looking back at the first digital artworks I created because they are still very relevant today.

Hahahaha I completely get that. Aside from the humor and irony that are very visually evident within your pieces, there’s also the dystopian and disembodied aspect of it that you’re highlighting through it. How do you navigate hosting your art on platforms that typically encourage this hyperconsumerism of images, while still preventing your work from feeding into this culture?

The good things about these platforms are that art is very accessible to anyone, and it’s also a good meeting place for establishing connections with other artists, curators, galleries or art enthusiasts. I am just trying to stick to my ideas and I don’t mind if this is not getting me a lot of exposure – maybe this is the only way of staying healthy in this alienating environment.

It definitely is – I feel like if you keep a healthy distance between yourself and the mechanisms of the platform, then you can use it in a way that simply showcases your work and acts as a portfolio. You’ve exhibited at both in-person exhibitions, as well as virtual ones. How would you compare the two experiences? Were there differences in the way you experienced your own work in the two different environments?

Of course, I would like people to go as close as possible to my works and it’s nice when you take part in an immersive experience. I love exhibiting IRL because it’s a place of physically get togethers, you really feel like you are celebrating something, but there are certain limits like the place and the time. Then, when you have a virtual display, it can be viewed from any corner of this world, anytime, it’s definitely the most accessible – but the excitement is not necessarily the same, because of the current situation of experiencing everything online and one can get tired of it. However, I really like the idea of being inside a game world, there is a lot of space in pushing the limits this way. Anyway, for my works the hybrid form could be the ideal one.

It’s nice because either way the contrast between the real and the digital is present either way – both within the work and in the exhibition space. Thank you so much for answering my questions! As one last question, I wanted to ask how you approach starting a piece. Do you set concrete intentions from the beginning, or does the piece kind of evolve within itself? Are there any projects and pieces that you’re feeling inspired to start in the near future?

It's not always the same process. Sometimes I feel inspired by a picture or other items, a story, something very personal, or it’s an already given concept for a show, then the piece slowly reveals to me. I already started to work on a new video and I can’t wait to see where it is going to take me.