icons \ ideals
Marco Grassi (IT), Marinda Vandenheede (BE), Misha Alekseenko (UA), Serhiy Popov (UA).
Curated by Serhiy Popov (UA).
Contemporary non-objective and reductive artists create their
works using limited set of visual categories such as a line, a shape, a
color, a plane, an object, a space, emptiness etc.
Like letters
in the alphabet, these visual categories have their own universal
abstract images - representations used by artists as visual elements in
their imagination.
Picking an element or a combination of them,
an artist develops an original configuration (a concept) in compliance
with the original idea or based on a sense, on intuition. Using that
configuration, an artist aims at achieving a certain state that
resonates from perception of an artwork as a coherent image: the sense
of harmony. This aesthetic sense emerges when the original idea complies
with the artwork that by virtue of its harmony and authenticity has an
existence of its own.
An idea (a concept) developed in a space of
abstract images-representations and harmony achieved by an artist stand
before viewers as «silent» experience: observation of an artwork
through vision alone rather than by reading it. It is impossible to read
it using a “language”.
With no bridge of linguistic
instructions, visible and perceivable images get imprinted in the
viewer`s conscience and exist there as concrete icons — eidoses. Being
abstract and minimalistic, an eidos as a visual representation is open
to games of imagination: it can become an ideal or a prototype for new
concrete icons, can be embodied in a certain idea or get a shape in
something else.
Losing its integrity, any concrete thing breaks down into abstractions — icons for the future ideals.
Serhiy Popov.
“Standing still is NOT going backwards!”
The work that was selected for this exhibition is part of a series of works based on crucifixes, the ultimate icon of the culture I was brought up in. The starting point was the fact that, as I visited flea markets, recycle parks and yard sales looking for materials to work with, I kept bumping in to heaps of crucifixes that used to adorn every room in the typical Flemish household. Now, these crucifixes seemed to have lost their original meaning to the occupants of these houses, discarding them as trash or selling them off for a few pennies. Surely, the times have changed in Western Europe.
I decided to deconstruct these icons and re-use them, creating minimalist and reflective works, such as the one shown in this exhibition. Stripped of their religious meaning, the elements are rearranged and it is left to the observer to interpret and give new meaning.
…
Marinda Vandenheede
July 21st, 2018
Waregem, Belgium
The full version of the essay "Standing still is NOT going backwards!" in English is available at the following link.
Partners: Mikhail Bulgakov Museum.Media partners: Kyiv DailyMikhail Bulgakov museumAndreevskiy Descent, 13Kiev, Ukraine.Opening August 22th, 7-9 pm.On view through September 20th.Open hours: 10am–6pm. Closed - Wednesdays.
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Exhibition views.
All photos ©KNO
Marinda Vandenheede (BE), Marco Grassi (IT), Serhiy Popov (UA).
Marco Grassi (IT), Serhiy Popov (UA), Misha Alekseenko (UA).
Marinda Vandenheede (BE)
Untitled, 2017.
Found crucifixes, 40x30 cm.
Marinda Vandenheede (BE)
Untitled, 2017.
Found crucifixes, 40x30 cm.
Marco Grassi (IT), Serhiy Popov (UA).
Marco Grassi (IT).
"Empty Orange", (1 space with 2 shapes). 2017.
MDF, spray fluorescente, 35x35x10 cm.
Marco Grassi (IT).
"Empty Orange", (1 space with 2 shapes). 2017. (fragment)
MDF, spray fluorescente, 35x35x10 cm.
Marco Grassi (IT), Serhiy Popov (UA), Misha Alekseenko (UA).
Serhiy Popov (UA)
Untitled, 2018.
Found paving slab, acrylic, 10x10x8 cm.
Serhiy Popov (UA)
Untitled, 2018.
Found paving slab, acrylic, 10x10x8 cm.
Misha Alekseenko (UA)
Untitled, 2018.
Found object, 40x40 cm.
Misha Alekseenko (UA)
Untitled, 2018.
Found object, 40x40 cm.
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