Uncharted

Mala Galerija, POUP Poreč, 2020.

A multimedial installation „Uncharted“ brings a synergy of painting (canvas and wall), sound and hand-drawn animation. In a fusion, these three elements,  are creating a blockage towards the outside world at the same time opening the door to one hybrid reality. Individually, everything in this work is familiar, almost innate to all of us, but in the combination of this integral elements, an experience of strangeness, surreal; a leap towards the unknown is achieved. A somewhat adventure.

Regarding the motif, the work derives from the experience of nature and its forces/appearances which are always respectable, fascinating, and often awakening the purest feelings inside of us. Beneath the surface of the first impression, discretely infiltrated, are the signs of human existence and action; here, they are not indicating a threat, rather witnessing of a pressence – an echo of unclear ideas, historical residue, human endeavor for discovering and creating of new and „better“ relations.

            This need mirrors in the structure of the work itself- we have a traditionally executed figurative oil painting, in this case extended through the gallery space by decorative wall painting elements; the sounds which fulfill the space, adding a  superstructure, as well as influencing it in a distractive and independent way. The animated part of the installation, in its achromaticity, simplicity and movement, is a counterbalance to the detail-saturated, still painted space. Besides that, it is a place to take a break, spend some time isolated with repetitive, hypnotic-like structure of the video.  

From the relations between different segemts of this work, which vary from harmonic to unstable, and also from the symbolics of the motifs, we can draw a parallel to the relations between human kind and nature as its given habitat, and between an individual and civilisation as well. Considering condition of the society, those relations are complex and unpredictable, and our judgement is clouded in a constant battle of our wish to progress and awareness of our limits as an intelligent but very fragile species.

 

Radovan Kunć, 2020.