Chaos Morphic: How Sara Petrović Negotiates Impermanence in Sculpture
- Savina Ražnatović
- May 7
- 5 min read
Sara Petrović uses a process of slow emergence and reduction to create sculptures. Seldom do her pieces appear as completed works. Instead, they seem to be in a state of flux, shaped by processes that embrace mutation and materials that oppose permanence. She creates objects that straddle the line between formation and collapse using polyurethane foam, styrofoam, and paper. Frequently incorporating bitumen and fabric, which contribute to the tactile depth and atmospheric quality of her installations, allowing them to breathe and shift like ephemeral environments. She frames her practice as one based on impermanence and uncertainty, explaining, "I try to capture the space between becoming and disappearing." Petrović’s sculptures propose an alternative ontology of the object, rooted in entropy, negotiation, and the refusal of fixity.
Though it defies autobiography, Petrović's work is influenced by interior perception and lived experience. The lines separating internal and external, personal and collective, are constantly shifting. Although she lets her intuition lead her, she is equally vulnerable to interruption by the emotional texture of a given moment or the technical resistance of the material. A mental image serves as the starting point for her sculptures, which develop through experimentation and modification. She never has complete control over them. She bargains with them instead. This negotiation recalls Karen Barad’s theory of “intra-action,” where entities emerge through relationships rather than preceding them. This framework resonates with Petrović’s evolving, co-authored forms. The conflict between surface and structure makes these negotiations apparent. The materials she uses have two meanings: they are expansive and light, but also brittle and prone to deterioration. This duality is significant. It reflects her work's psychological undercurrent, an embodied understanding of vulnerability, transience, and unresolved emotional states.
Although the sculptures' visual language alludes to otherworldly forms—fluid, hybrid, and nearly surreal—they never completely depart from the world or the body's reality. They remain grounded in the psychological infrastructure of everyday life. In this process, chance is subtle but important. Although she starts with a clear internal vision, she frequently has to make decisions mid-process due to the unpredictability of her materials. Physical constraints can cause what appears possible in the mind to fall apart. In reshaping her ideas through compromise, Petrović enters a negotiation. She characterizes the decision to embrace or reject such instances as a conscious strategy rather than a failure of control. Process, here, is not simply a means to form but a philosophical commitment to impermanence.
Petrović frequently emphasizes the significance of the sculptural process itself, not only as technique but also as meaning. From the sketch to the maquette to the final piece, every step feels independent, like a discrete act of perception. She stresses that these stages are unique manifestations rather than transitional phases. Drawing, in particular, is treated as an extension of intuition, a form of recognition rather than invention, capturing sensation instead of planning form. Her work revolves around the problem of permanence. According to Petrović, deterioration is a continuation of a sculpture's life rather than a sign of failure. When an object deforms, it simply transitions into a new phase. It does not die. With this mindset, sculpture is reframed not as a monument but as an organism, susceptible to entropy, time, and environment.
Her use of black, both in tone and texture, is closely linked to the visual and emotional impact of her work. According to Petrović, black is not neutral—it is charged. Light is absorbed by it. It produces silence and weight. It collapses clarity and inflates volume. In her hands, black becomes a filter that destabilizes, intensifies, and obscures. It's a gesture of emotional compression rather than aesthetic reduction. This chromatic strategy is particularly evident in works like “Bauk” and “Limen,” where black surfaces intensify a brooding stasis. Black, in this context, becomes more than form. It is residue. It absorbs and seals emotion, functioning as both a membrane and a void.
She doesn’t call for interpretation, even though her works invite introspection. She doesn't anticipate that viewers will feel what she feels. Instead, she provides a space open to projection, sensation, and interpretation. The work is ambient, not didactic. Each viewer enters with their own psychic past and helps to construct the experience of the piece. This openness reflects a wider shift in contemporary art toward affective, relational engagement, where authorship is shared through sensory interaction rather than fixed meaning.
Importantly, Petrović does not separate content from context. It matters where and how a piece is shown. She understands that a sculpture’s charge emerges through its relationship to light, shadow, and movement. Her works are not static entities but choreographic events experienced in real time. In “Liminalni Prostor,” for example, she stages a spatial drama through sculptural thresholds and ambient sound, inviting viewers to pass through mutating zones of sensory experience. The result is a sculptural logic based on transition, not arrival. Petrović shows little concern for aligning with current artistic trends. Her work doesn’t conform, but neither does it resist. It simply operates from another logic, an internal logic of necessity. Its power may lie in this very resistance to legibility. In resisting legibility, Petrović’s work doesn’t reject meaning. It multiplies it.
Sara Petrović (b. 1996, Podgorica, Montenegro) is a contemporary sculptor whose practice centers on liminal metamorphosis and entropy. Her multidisciplinary work spans polyurethane foam, styrofoam, paper, bitumen, fabric, and ambient sound, creating immersive, atmospheric installations that negotiate emergence and collapse. She completed her BA in Graphic Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cetinje in 2019—including a study abroad at the University of Lisbon—and graduated in Sculpture at the same institution in 2024 . Petrović has participated in more than six group exhibitions—Photo Shiftings (2019), Sveti Petar Cetinjski (2018), a humanitarian graphic exhibition at KIC Budo Tomović (2018), the 5th International Biennial of Nude “Marko Krstov Gregović” (2021), “Otići ili ostati” in Novi Sad (2022), and Terracotto in Podgorica (2022)—and held her first solo show at Gallery Vitomir Srbljanović in Pljevlja in February 2025 . She received first prize in the “Art Is of Female Gender” competition and a special group award for “Otići ili ostati” at Limanski Park, Novi Sad, and took part in residencies at the Center for Visual and Applied Arts Terra Kikinda (2021/2022) and Gallery Vitomir Srbljanović (2023) . Her work reflects on thresholds, the refusal of fixity, and the space between becoming and disappearing. She lives and works in Podgorica.
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