Fresh Post, Fresh Art

Dear ArtFans (those of you, at least, whose attention I still have after the summer break)

As the summer passed by, and as I finally managed to recharge my batteries, my intellectual hunger for some juicy contemporary art started to grow. So what would be more becoming than reviving Art Recycler with a hot and crispy new exhibition at Budapest? The exhibit has a rather adequate name: it's called Fresh 2011, and its scintillating works of art are currently inducing chaos or catharsis at Kogart House (Andrássy street 112.)

Fresh is a permanent project in the fine arts arena and this is the eighth year it is organized. Basically, this is the major début of the most promising students with fresh degrees (under the age of 30) of the most prestigious art schools of Hungary (namely: Magyar Képzőművészeti Egyetem, Pécsi Tudományegyetem's Art Faculty, and Moholy-Nagy Művészeti Egyetem.) This year; however, was slightly different because several Romanian artists had the opportunity to introduce themselves to the audience through their artworks as well. The goal of this is bifold, since the organizers' aim was to evoke certain mutual points in the two nations collective memory.


Similarly, the exhibition itself wishes, and manages, to touch upon several layers of a nation's or an individual's most important areas of life and history. It has a clear pattern behind the mere concept of displaying the works of young and talented artists: it also exposes the stereotypes, myths, and themes of contemporary art. The polygraphic exhibit applies to multifarious issues and topics, for instance identity problems, sexuality, history, trauma, the relationship between past and present, the important role of the community, the future: the universe - and the subtle connections between all these, and their impact on the self.
The voice and atmosphere of Fresh is described to be light and ironic but grave, cold, even cruel at the same time by the critics. However, it is of no doubt that all of the displayed works convey substantial messages regarding the above mentioned subjects.


As the great variety of the addressed issues suggests, the genres, the designs, and the implementations of the messages are very diverse, too. Graphics, installations, paintings, collages, videos, and works of mixed genres are all exhibited at Kogart to treat or grind the audiences eyes and minds.

A brief comment: although Kogart made a fairly comprehensive and alluring catalogue for the exhibit, those who still remained hungry and curious about the further works of the young artists will probably be disappointed since their materials and works are incredibly hard, or downright impossible to find on the Internet. Anyway, this might be another telling argument to go and check out Fresh.

Moreover, here is a list of the names of the artists for the unwavering kind: antalaci, Bodolóczki Linda, Bögi Diána, Brückner János, Fátyol Viola, Fridvaliszki Mark, Gergely-Farnos Lilla, Hollós Ádám, horrorpista, Horváth Erzsébet, Jagicza Patrícia, Karsai Dániel, M. Páll Zoltán, George Marinciu, Radu Mocanu, Mohamed Gamal Sophia, Molnár Ágnes Éva, Nagy Benjámin, Orr Máté, Pinczés József, Radics Márk, Stefan Sava, Szabó Gergely, Szalai Dorottya, Razvan Tun, Daniela Vasiliu, Vasvári Márta, Daniela Virlan

The exhibition can be visited till 18th September.
The two artworks featured in this post are Brückner János's Maya Gold and Bodolóczki Linda's Szerelem, szerelem.

Redefinitions

Hi Everyone,

Before anything else, I would like to thank you all for following my blog for nearly four months now. Viewing my stats, and realizing that my posts are being read at various places in the world gives me a lot of inspiration. I like to believe that the data I collect and the observations I share prove useful for everyone who is interested in contemporary art, or wishes to have a peek at today's artistic sphere.

Today's blog entry will be dedicated to two incredibly resourceful artists, both of whom likes to reinvent or redefine everyday objects, and challenge the widely received meaning they carry. Alan Sailer mainly thinks in the frame of l'art pour l'art, while Zbigniew Libera's works usually convey messages which are preoccupied with social and cultural tendencies and stereotypes.

Alan Sailer: High-speed Photographs

Here is an artist who gives a new definition to the expression "trigger happy." The 54 year-old photographer, who lives in California, found his individual path in the field of the art of destruction. A photo shoot, according to his notions, is not just a figurative phrase anymore. So much the more as his hobbyhorse and specialty is to shoot everyday objects with an air rifle and take high-speed pictures of them. He shoots his targets from a close-up position: he is only 20 centimeters away from the object he aims at in his dark "laboratory." The special effect that his camera features is a homemade flash which is set at a one-second delay and thus gives a heart-stoppingly detailed picture of the disassembling targets. The result is spectacular and dramatic, since the artist rips wide open the heart and essence of everyday objects like vegetables, fruits, or bibelots.

His art is not only complex on a visual level: he has to master the cold technicalities of professional photography as well to get the maximized effect from his ephemeral targets, which explode within seconds after Sailer's bullet enters them. "The camera is set at one second and an f-stop of 9-13 depending on the reflectivity of the subject. The flash stops the action. The one second gives me time to click the camera shutter with one hand while I pull the trigger on the rifle with the other," he explained in an interview.

His expectations regarding the chosen objects sometimes put him in predicates which typically resemble the dilemmas of conceptual artists. Namely that from time to time, he enjoys the idea of an artwork more than the result itself. His photograph, It's a bit runny, for instance, is based on a Monty Python episode where the comedians say: "Ah, we do have some Camembert, sir... It's a bit runny, sir..." Still, Sailer is not quite satisfied with his execution of the idea; yet, he publishes the image, since it is based on a valuable and cherished concept. Although he's a maximalist, his artworks show that even mundane everyday objects can be turned into pieces of art with a pinch of creativity and vision.

You can indulge in the visual delight Sailer's ingenious photographic vandalism offers if you check his works on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8763834@N02/

Zbigniew Libera: Ken's Aunt

Libera has been widely infamous for changing tiny details regarding the concept behind acclaimed toys, and turning everything, including the audience, upside down with his twisted mind ever since he made the Lego Concentration Camp series. The effect of his work, Ken's Aunt, is no different. His piece incorporates 24 plus-sized Barbie dolls stored in cardboard boxes, undermining the general catchiness of the glamorous Mattel dolls who otherwise breathe the crystal-clear air of perfection through their cautiously colored lips.

The plump Barbies, who still have the charming facial features of the original blonde bombshell, are tooled up with luscious hips, busoms, and a "swim ring" of fat around their waist which rather resemble the proportions of the fleshy fantasy female team Rubens liked to spend his freetime with. Also, as their name indicates, they are more mature than their anorexic little sisters, which the artist emphasizes with the somewhat old-fashioned undergarments they wear as well. This rethinked doll is apparently much more of a cuddly Auntie who locks unprepared adolescents into her suffocative hug during family visits than the hardly-disguised hourglass-shaped sex toy it used to be.

The acid idea clearly rebels against society's standard aesthetic values which blunt the body image of women and girls at a very early age. Although the overweight, yet voluptious Aunties seem quite shocking to the audience, their body shape is curiously much closer to the everyday female body than the skinny blonde's, whose waist is so slim that it could hardly bear the weight of her shapely breasts. Thus, although Libera's toys appear to be non-canonical, if one thinks the situation through more profoundly, they must realize that either a great percentage of real life (and real sized) women live outside the norm of attractiveness, or it is the dolls of Mattel that are unrealistic.

"My ability to work with objects is taken from everyday urban contemporary life. In my study of the development of correctional devices and educational toys, I see such devices reveal more about a society and its mechanisms for creating and enforcing its norms than any study of society could," the artist himself stated about the concept which lies behind his artwork.

"I wanted to inject an internal "virus" which would disjoin the object and the domain in which it operates," Libera said.

Mission accomplished. At least in Barbie World.

Spring Exhibits II.

Spring is a very special season for young contemporary artists, since the winners of the Derkovits Bursary are announced at this time of the year. This acclaimed award is a very significant one, as it is the only federal award which is intended to support entrant artists under the age of 35.) Although the idea of the bursary is an unparalleled one in Hungary, the total sum of money that these beginning artists are given is a fairly modest one (eighty thousand forints per eleven months.) Still, it is better than nothing, and besides the money, it means a real prestige for a young artist to partake in the Derkovits Bursary, particularly in light of the fact that there are approximately two hundred applicants each year. Moreover, it is a great improvement compared to the previous years that the artists are allowed to participate in other exhibitions and projects as well.

As usual, the three classes of the previous year's winners have an exhibition in Ernst Múzeum at springtime. The current exhibit was opened at 9 April, and it features a wide array of colorful works both stylistically and with regards to their genre.
As the critiques observed, the artworks of this year are unusually mature and conscious regarding their themes and construction. The majority of them show a chaotic, yet witty blend of techniques, resulting in astounding and inventive pieces. However, the best of them do not only remain on the playground, but take a look at the street as well: there are several works which carry a strong social connotation as well, and thus leaves the grounds of l'art pour l'art. As some experts indicate, this could freshen and energize the Hungarian artistic arena.

Even though the versatile and playful exhibition promotes an incredible amount of works, which have a blurry conversation with each other and the visitor, there are no particular pieces which are emphasized in the exhibit. All the artworks exist in the same space and in the same time with equal importance.
Although it is pretty hard to choose from them, I selected two specific artists and their works to present in my blog. One of them is Germán Fatime, and her salacious collages regarding the female body and its treatment by society and the media, while the other one is Koralevics Rita, whose creative and voluble installations just crave analysis.



Germán Fatime: No Fur

This artist usually creates works which are constructed with flawless technique, but their greatest strength is the complex layer of the messages they carry. Stylistically, the works' biggest achievement is the spontaneity and the well-hid deliberation they manage to amalgam. Contentwise, they usually explore female roles and stereotypes. Although the image they convey concerning the social conceptions about contemporary women is often sharp-fanged, the sense of humor they are constructed with always protects them from becoming too acerbic or narrow-minded.
Germán Fatime's series, No Fur, is made with diverse techniques, and reflects on the distorted body image that the media transmits about the ideal state of the female body. Her works are ironic presentations of the prescribed beauty today's people base their expectations on.


Koralevics Rita: Dobozolt terhek (Boxed Loads)

The artist's series, Boxed Loads, mainly transforms everyday articles of personal use into artworks which have a strong aesthetical emanation and significance. Her installations of crowded rooms, or rooms with conspicuous absences reflect on contemporary familial and romantic relationships. There is a sense of distortion she depicts: the realistic elements become surreal, while the surrealistic parts seem natural. Furthermore, her pieces circuit around the current concept of "home" in a world where everything is mobilized and transitory. As she herself claimed, these installations are also leads for her to find her roots and a state of stability in her life.

Anyone who wishes to have an accurate picture about the new generation of today's contemporary artists and the artistic sphere itself should go visit the exhibition which will be open till 29 May.

Spring Exhibits I.

Today's blog post will introduce two inspiring exhibitions that I had the opportunity to check out during spring break. Apart from involving the artworks of contemporary artists, the two exhibits have another curiosity: they are just a few steps away from each other, since one of them was in Trafó, while the other one in Tündérgyár.

OUTPOST - The Critical Space

Contributing artists: Tomáš Džadoň, Halász

Péter Tamás - Domián Gyula, Kokesch Ádám, Pavla Sceranková

The works strongly reflect on the Eastern and Middle-European identity, and the region's social and economical tendencies. In other words, it is an abstract scenery of our region's past and present, which aims to have an impact on all the senses.

The installations have a gloomy atmosphere: almost all of them carries an apocalyptical desolation, which is, however, balanced by the playful irony most of the artists manage to plant into their pieces. The exhibit daintily avoids every opportunity to pass the borders of kitsch. Most of the works are simple, cheap, yet witty creations (like the photoelectric rural gate, which locks out every visitor). Their mutual feature is that they all convey a sense of homemadeness. This so-called "garage-aesthetics" is highly valued by the contributing artists, who suggest that this gadgeteering spirit is a great strength of the regions' contemporary art. Still, the minimalistic materials are all re-defined by our today's high-technology, resulting in perplexing contradictions or paradoxes.

Perhaps the most outstanding piece of the exhibition is Halász Péter Tamás's and Domián Gyula's strange hybrid of a stealth aircraft and a casual ward for the homeless. The fact that the plane is undetectable by radars transmits a bitter message regarding the treatment of homeless people, how are just as marginalized and invisible as the military plane.

The exhibition was open till 23, April, and it will probably be soon followed by another one involving the works of contemporary artists.

Balázs László - XV. Varnyú

The other exhibit I checked out was Balázs László's "XV. Varnyú"-exhibition, which is characterized by the artist's borrowed motto: "Only the insane take themselves quite seriously."

Tündérgyár is a quite pleasant and spatious tavern, which is famous for its hospitality towards alternative music bands. The place stays true to its spirit, and continues to promote those performers or artists, who are somewhat on the periphery, and one of their new projects is the organization of exhibitions.

Thus, for a month, Balázs László's charming, mischievous, and incredibly lively illustrations are decorating the walls of Tündérgyár. The artist claims that he gets his inspiration from the tiny morsels of impacts that he encounters during his everyday life, then these little details are transformed by a group of playful elves in his head. He must be right, because his visual world is vivid and magical, yet it always holds a crooked mirror to the human nature or society as a whole. Another interesting trait of his works is the distinctive and quirky language that he uses to reinforce his messages, which are conveyed by the monsterlike, yet, amiable figures he creates.

All in all, the general imagery and effect that his illustrations form is quite indescribable because of their originality and idiosyncracy. Therefore, it is strongly recommended for anyone who is interested in a bunch of smile-raising and cartoonlike pictures to check out Balázs lászló's blog (http://varnyu.eu/) or see the exhibit itself while enjoying a glass of beer with a couple of friends.

Images of Isolation

Today's blog entry will cover two works of two artists, who were most often associated with surrealism, but remained on the peripheries of the movement. The first one is the Belgian painter, René Magritte, and the second one is the Mexican icon, Frida Kahlo. Both painters were idyosyncraticly genuine representatives of the chance encounter of that infamous sewing machine and the umbrella.

René Magritte - The Lovers

While Magritte was introverted in his personal life, he was eccentric in his art, which made him a primary figure of surrealism. Like many of his fellow artists, he liked to shed a new light on everyday objects and experiences, bringing their forgotten or undiscovered meanings to the surface. The Lovers (1928) is a forcibly descriptive example for this phenomenon.

The painting; however, is a real riddle. The number of the associations that stem from it are just as infinite as the different, yet inherently similar forms of love which the work depicts. The painting may emphasize the eternal nature of love: although its subject and face might change, it borns and florishes throughout a person's lifetime. Or it might refer to the well-known saying: "love is blind." In that case, the piece suggests that even though the veiled faces are desperate to approach and touch each other, they will always be separated by the different identities they conceal.

(Perhaps one of the most beautiful and expressive summary of this intrinsic inaccessibility that two lovers experience is this quote from the movie, Unmade Beds: "That it's an illusion to pretend that we can bridge the gap between your thoughts and mine. For you, every person is like a planet and two different planets can never become one. Two people together will always be: one plus one. I preferred to think of us as bubbles, because when they touch, they merge into one another like when two people make love. But now I know what you meant. Two people together will always be one plus one.")

About making love: if we would like to interpret the title of the artwork literally, then we are dealing with a case of the mutual anonymity of two persons who only form a fragile bondage to find short-term pleasure through each other. In that situation, it is only the surface of each other that these two osculate. The rest, the individual characteristics of the face, which are the expletives of the soul, remains untouched in this encounter.

Although the treasury of associations in connection with The Lovers seems unexploitable, the ars poetica of Magritte, namely that the quest for a rational subtext is futile, might set bounds to one's inclination to spend hours trying to find the perfect interpretation for it. According to him, the mystery of art, just like the covered lovers in his painting, is genuinely unknowable.

Frida Kahlo -The Broken Column

Kahlo, who is perhaps the most renowned Mexican woman, was an incredibly colorful and talented artist. Her oeuvre encompasses numerous recurring themes: her own femininity, failures, losses, a strong sense of national identity, her leftist political notions, the effervescent versatility of nature, and the like. Yet, one of the most conspicuous features of her art is a constant presence of duality: although her motto was "viva la vida," the life that she celebrated so much was underborn with an unimaginable amount of suffering.

In her teenage years, Frida had to endure an almost fatal and life-changing bus crash, which mutilated her for the rest of her life, and put her thr ough a neverending series of unsuccessful procedures to hold her body together. Although she gave evidence of an unparalelled fortitude regarding physical pain, she had to withstand plenty of hurtful events due to the infidelity of her adored husband, Diego Rivera, as well.

The Broken Column (1944) is one of the most powerful works among her countless self-portraits. Kahlo was a naive painter, and an autodidact; still, her paintings carry an extremely impressive and cathartic sense of anguish. The piece reveals her two-sided affliction: the broken spine symbolizes her suffering on a somatic level, and the immeasurable amount of small nails lodged in her skin stand for the emotional distress she was experiencing owing to Rivera's affairs. Kahlo always depicts her feelings in a bewilderingly sincere manner: the dense tears in her eyes show that the aches she has to sustain are both constant and excruciating. Moreover, contrarily to the majority of her artworks, in which she depicts herself in the company of her beloved pets, or her husband, she is all alone in this painting. This shows that she was always experiencing a sense of imperishable loneliness, since her dreadful and unique condition isolated her from the people around her.

Although the audience gets the impression that the iron corset is the only thing that saves her from utter disintegration, her incredible fortitude is also present on the picture. Even though she's crying, she stares at the viewer in an unflinching manner. Her glance and her posture both convey a sense of strength and proudness. Although she is miserable, Frida is invincible in her nudity and vulnerability.

Another point of interest concerning the painting is the ionic column that she inserted in the middle of her open torso. The chiseled and classical column also projects a double meaning: first, Frida's inclination to use art as therapy, secondly, her greatest achievement as an artist, namely to create the aesthetics of anguish and deterioration, which celebrates the pulsation of life under the shadows of endless suffering.

Beneath the Canvas

Today's special blog post will be devoted to the exhibition of Zsuzsi Csiszér, a contemporary painter from Veszprém, which was recently opened in Várfok Gallery. The name of the exhibit, Journals, is an accurate summary of the atmosphere of the works presented, since most of them are the mementos of someone's daily musings and self-analysis in the mirror of the various impacts one encounters during the day. In that spirit, in her huge collages, Csiszér rips open the smooth canvas of reality, and scrutinizes the new associations and parallels between the fragments of tiny details and influences (ads, dreams, imaginary faces and landscapes) this reality is formed by. Using her brush as a scalpel, she drills small tunnels into the surface of things, and creates a new panorama to the chaotic mixture at the bottom of our, personal or collective, unconscious. Although her works are rather intrinsic, Csiszér manages to make a conversation with the outside world as well, because she addresses a number of external events in her pieces: she often uses bits of newspaper headlines and articles as a building material for her art for instance.

One of the artist's recurring motifs is the human face. Her large collages usually depict two or three faces from different angles, putting a great emphasis on the eyes, which have always carried the connotation of seeing the deeper essence of people or everyday phenomena. Still, some of these faces are painted with faint and nacreous colors, which sometimes create an artificial or kitsch-like effect. The paintings remain silent about the question whether this is a conscious and intentional thing from the artist's part, evoking the idealized images that mushroom in the media, or an inadvertent one. In this series, the pictures that portray aging people are way more interesting, since the fragmentary and deteriorating faces of old people resonate very well with the disintegratedness of the form itself.

Although the most impressive works are these collages, Csiszér also featured a number of witty and delicate installations made with different techniques. She grasps the subconscious of the typical female by displaying the same abstract and fractional elements on chopping boards for example. Also, the artist carved out a big papier macher figure solely from newspaper sheets, and made a miniature labyrinth out of tv program guides.
Still, one of the most intriguing objects in the gallery is probably an excerpt from the artist's actual journal, in which she ponders on her ars poetica and most inner feelings and thoughts; however, even here, her most intimate moments are stirred up by the menial happenings of daily life: one of her friends draws a small heart on her sheet of paper, or distracts her by talking to her about irrelevant issues.

Those who are interested in Csiszér Zsuzsi's above mentioned or other artworks can either check out her own blog: http://csiszerzsuzsicsiszer.blogspot.com/ or see the exhibition, which can be visited till 7th May.

"But you didn't, did you?"

Hi all,

Today's blog entry will be devoted to two devious members of the YBA (Young British Artists): Tracey Emin, whose infamous work, My bed was already covered here, and Damien Hirst, the so-called leader of the group. Apart from discussing two pieces by each artist, I will touch upon the serious dilemma of creating remakes of certain works and the different positions these two artists take regarding this matter.

Tracey Emin - Everyone I Have Ever Slept With

One of Emin's debuting works as a member of the YBA, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With, or The Tent, gained a fair amount of media attention when it was first exhibited in the Royal Academy in London, 1997. Basically, the young artist obtained a regular tent which she decorated with the names of literally everybody she has ever slept with between 1963 and 1995. This means exactly 102 names, which were appliquéd on the inside of the tent.

Unfortunately, the piece was usually misunderstood by the audience and critics as well, since they regarded the work as a symbol of Emin's promiscuous lifestyle. However, the artist emphasized several times that the majority of the names are the names of friends, relatives, school peers, and, staying true to her unusual ways of healing with the help of art, two foetuses whom she did not give birth to. Although Emin is generally not afraid of a saucy scandal, she stated that the misapprehension of this being the list of those she was sexually involved with reduces the message and meaning of her piece.

She wanted to create a work of art which is a memorandum of the intimacy and propinquity that those people experience who sleep together. "You don't do that with someone you don't love and don't care about" - she claimed. The tent carries another significant message to the artist herself, functioning as self-assurement and reinforcement at the same time: there is a text on its floor, which goes like this: "With myself, always myself, never forgetting"

Sadly, Emin's work was destructed in a fire at the East London Momart warehouse, which destroyed two of her other works, and a great number of other pieces by her fellow artists contributing to the Saatchi-collection. Apart from the loss of contemporary pieces of art, the event was increasingly upsetting, since the public's response was mockery and laughter, and "a lack of cultural understanding," as Emin later stated.

Although rumors say that she was offered tempting amounts of money to re-create her piece, she constantly refuses to do so, usually due to her highly emotional ars poetica: "I had the inclination and inspiration 10 years ago to make that, I don't have that inspiration and inclination now ... My work is very personal, which people know, so I can't create that emotion again — it's impossible."

Damien Hirst - The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

This most renowned work of the leading member of the YBA was created in 1991, and was exhibited in 1992 for the first time. Basically, it consists of a dissected tiger shark preserved in a vitrine full of formaldehyde. Similarly to Emin's Tent, Hirst's piece gained great publicity and it is considered an iconic example of Britart; no wonder it was nominated for the Turner Prize.

The artist's primary intention was to shock his audience. He said that he wanted to embody his idea by something that is "big enough to eat you." That's how he found the shark, which was obtained and prepared for its life frozen to eternity by an excruciatingly lengthy and delicate procedure. Hirst achieved his goal, since his work is still frequently discussed and assessed in artistic arenas. In 2007, The New York Times took the effort to write an article which digs into the deeper meaning and context of the piece, and described it the following way:

"In keeping with the piece’s title, the shark is simultaneously life and death incarnate in a way you don’t quite grasp until you see it, suspended and silent, in its tank. It gives the innately demonic urge to live a demonic, deathlike form."

Yet, similarly to Emin's Tent, the piece was doomed to dissolution. In 2006, the original shark had to be replaced with a new specimen, and Hirst acted in a fully co-operative manner. Still, he had to face the philosophical and artistic dilemma whether the result was the same piece of art or not. Although Hirst was a bit hesitant, he stated that according to his background as a conceptual artist, he is entitled to think that the intention itself is more important than the original tools and specimen.

As for the harsh criticisms that claimed that anyone can create an artwork like this, the artist retorted: "But you didn't, did you?" I think, that's a fair argument in defense of a lot of contemporary pieces of art.