28 March 2024

Thursday, 16:20

"THE SUN AND THE NEON"

Fourteen artists from Kazakhstan shared their vision of conceptual art in Baku

Author:

15.09.2017

This is the name of the exhibition of fourteen artists living in Kazakhstan and organized by Yarat!. “Sun” is obvious to everyone in both direct and figurative senses. But what about “Neon”? The first thing that comes to mind is a cold, bluish hue of fluorescent light with bright shades so popular in outdoor advertising in the twentieth century. But this assumption oversimplifies the meaning of the whole concept. In fact, everything has much deeper sense and largely depends on individual abilities of each visitor to solve intellectual puzzles. If we assume that the "neon" used in the title of the exhibition is a semantic reference to the sixth most common element in the Universe after hydrogen, helium, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, then "the Sun and the Neon" makes a very interesting sense. Also, in Greek, neon means new. Hence, the entire title of the exhibition acquires quite a new meaning.

There is still a very important point about the title of the exhibition. Scientists argue that neon lights justify their name only if they emit a red glow. But what is color of the Sun? For some it is white, for others it seems yellow, red, or even bluish-white.

The perception of color by the human eye depends on many factors. In the afternoon, we see the Sun white, while in the morning and in the evening, it becomes yellow-orange and red, respectively. The physical state of the atmosphere, the angle of incidence of sunrays, the time of the day - everything matters for the perception of color. In addition, different people perceive the same color in different ways. This is the result of psychological processes rather than physical ones. In fact, the perception of the same color is the result of an agreement between people to call certain sensations of the optic nerve using specific color names. Therefore, the meaning of the title of the exhibition depends on individual interpretation of each visitor. Just like the interpretation of each work presented at the exhibition.

 

The battle for freedom between the heart and mind

Contemporary art... What is it? Art that is born at a specific time? Romanticism, realism, brutal realism, neo-realism, pop art, etc. These are various directions in art, which have emerged at the junction of times thanks to the change of aesthetic and artistic ideals. Sometimes as a desire to penetrate into the "truth of life", or as a rebellion against "the conventional forms", or as a desire "to go beyond the framework of canonical trends". Now, at the beginning of the new century, artists are also looking for their forms and means of expressiveness. Various kinds of performances and installations have become fundamental in the structure of thought of conceptual art. The conceptual art is a style that emerged in the 1960s in the United States, trying to express the idea rather than to create a visible image. The materials used are photographs, written information, graphics, sound and videotapes. The objective is to study the nature of art.

According to many researchers, an important component of conceptual art is an aimless game. It is this game that activates the life. According to the adherents of this trend, "art as an idea" exists only as a product of human life. Therefore, Kazakh artists use photos, texts, monitors, TV screens, audio and video tools, online reporting, wood texture, various fabrics and metals, video installations, scrap materials, etc. to express conceptual thoughts. Well, at first glance, it looks and sounds all right for a new artistic trend given the number of previous trends and the ones yet to come. But why does this new trend accumulates so much destructive power in its nature? Perhaps because the artists seek for freedom between the heart and the mind?

 

"The Ark"

Here is a ship deck consisting of small drawers. They contain photos from the past. One of them may be yours, as the past is common to all of us, and it lies in the Soviet period, which carried the Soviet people on the waves of Sovietization, collectivization, ideology, which has put together everyone under the collective idea of building the Communism. An artist from the Soviet past blames the time that deprived him of his ancestral roots. Well, it is fashionable these days to blame the Soviet past for all the sins, imaginable and unimaginable. Yet today such a position of many artists seems rather speculative.

 

"Stone on stone, brick on brick..."

The title for this wood installation is taken from a poem about Lenin by Margarita Ivenson (Margarita Shor). It symbolizes the author's idea about the ​​building of Socialism. Again, we have a look into the past, and another artistic attempt to find the freedom between mind and heart.

 

"Eyes Wide Shut"

This is a photo installation. Three huge male faces. But something is wrong with them. Their eyes! They simply do not exist. No eyes, only the creepy holes. A person hiding from the world. He does not want to be in touch with the world. He has closed his eyes and the problem has disappeared. No information - no problem. So simple! Information deprives you from having rest, stretches your nerves and makes you make decisions, and be responsible for your decisions.

 

"A Road to Nowhere"

The perimeter of the room is filled with wooden, coarse-lined staircases laid in the air so that they eventually return you to the starting point. In the center is something looking like a conical sarcophagus storing the death masks of those who have already departed to nowhere and fell under the weight of despair. Red hammers are hanging around the entire perimeter of the room in the space between the stairs. What are they for? There are many versions: for nails or maybe for human heads. No one knows. On the opposite side of the wall, there are many monitors with talking heads. You go around again and again! A life to nowhere...

 

"Are They Caryatids?"

The tops of Greek columns are crowned with naked female figures. We see them from the back and only up to the waist. A lot of them. And they all, one after another, are directed upwards. To an invisible goal for us. A paraphrase of the classical Ionic style. With the only difference is that these "caryatids" do not have an antique function - a function of support. They lack personal support - their own feet. Contrary to what is necessary for goddesses on a pedestal, they are not free to choose their movements, they simply cannot act...

 

"The Fear"

A naked woman with a head of a bird of prey, similar to the head of a griffin, froze in a waiting attitude. Either a ritual action or an attempt to hide from the world under the guise of a predator... This is a true space for the imagination: an excuse for one's own interpretation.

 

"Ah, if they knew what sort of a rubbish the flowers grow from, without shame ..." 

A TV set put on a pile of metal junk. On the screen, is a reportage of an artist sculpting an image of an unknown leader. He is an artist. He is a master. And he alone knows the magic of turning the rubbish into a genuine work of art.

 

"The Pagans"

A group of many naked women in the snow. They are all different. Raising their hands to the sky, they either pray or say spells: a pagan way of asking the God for a child. Why has this become a subject of artistic interest? One can only explain this by the author’s aspiration for shocking the audience.

This is only a small part of the works exhibited at the exposition. And since conceptual art may be interpreted differently, we have named the works on our own.

So, what are the benefits of modern conceptual art: a pleasure to solve intellectual puzzles on the topic "what exactly did the artist want to say?" or a feeling of slight disgust for the surrounding life? Such a light disgust turns into a mild annoyance and, as a way of self-defense against the destructive intrusion of the conceptual, generates a desire to resist. The only question is: resist to what? To the method used to "convey an idea" or to the idea itself, which has been created and transmitted before?



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