A duo-show to enter a realm of duality which takes place at the DSC Gallery in Prague until June 25th under the curation of Domenico de Cherico. The narration starts with the title which sounds like a proverb… with a visual impact… deriving from the biblical expression, entered in the common language, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap”. The title brings together unusual notions and contexts, the pagan and sacred in a playful and subtle manner. Even before entering the space of the gallery, the viewer is warned by a form of prediction and caution… it’s all about the causes and consequences… it’s all about his own actions. Sow and Reap… Leashes and Dogs… a double parallel and direction that the exhibition is taking all along… like a mirror and mimetism… an irresistible face to face… so far, so close. The junction is a balance and existential choice.
From the street, through the window, the crying faces of a baby by Lubomír Typlt unfold like a frieze, a film reel or a chronophotography. It’s a revelation of time and movement… imperceptible and yet perceptible changes and transformations. Son or daughter, one or several babies… the ambiguous transitions and radiations take the step on the individuality. The canvases form an extended unity and, therefore, a form of eternity. On a green background, the repetition and accumulation of faces, enlightened by warm vivid colors, have a poignant effect… a dancing flame… a burning fire… of life. In front of the window, the light is both natural and supernatural… and the instant becomes sacred for the viewer of the exhibition.
On the adjacent wall, two works of Adam Štech obey a similar resonance. The works dialogue as a diptych… same formats and compositions… but entails an uncanny resemblance. They are alike but different and the viewer is facing a double apparition of a woman with her child on the knees. The ambiguity is emphasized by the alteration of faces and postures in a cubistic way. Those works are at the edge of an anonymous motherhood and the Madonna and child. The historical and contemporary are merging into a common iconography and universal meaning… at the same time sacred and inherently human… relatable icons. The maternal love and intimacy also answers the loud solitude of the crying baby… as the “darkest hour is just before dawn”…
Either a woman holding a vegetable, a smoking Picasso, or the Christ…, Štech deconstructs and constructs between the past and present, referring and reinventing the historical iconography in a new context. He obeys and disobeys the rules and canons of those representations. It’s a form of artistic insolence that translates through the deformations and mutations but the authenticity of gestures and attitude. Inviting the illusion of doppelgänger in his diptychs is particularly meaningful to question the image, the identity and a sense of truth. Beyond the frame, the viewer is also facing his own duplicity and originality… the self and the other?
The other works of Lubomír Typlt play with another form of sacrality and echo… either through the prism of motherhood or paradise. With a rare prevalence of green variations and the recurrence of the cherry in the compositions… Lubomír invites the viewer into an Eden and possible sin of gluttony with colors and textures that awakens the senses, swept by the wind and bathed in the light. The canvases display girls or boys holding or biting into the fruit… dark red and sweet. The compositions can be interpreted separately but, as often with the works of Lubomír, they have a greater meaning and drama when enjoyed as a more complex narration and sequences. Even if the cherry can be seen as sensual, dual and tempting, the historical iconography also relates it to the sweetness of paradise… evoking both the youth of Christ and the later Passion. It is a symbolic fruit and a bittersweet allusion to every possible visual language from the past to the present… a cultural heritage and generational bond. The iconography perpetuates a language of signs and visual experiences for the viewer… a dialog without words. In those compositions, the viewer can notice that the children are often being fed by a bigger figure, standing either in the composition (her face hidden by her hairs) or beyond… as a rock and protective or directive entity… a super mother. The moment has something ritual and joyful. It entails a duty of transmission and sharing… either eating a bloody fruit or reading a letter… a balancing and fraternity. And the viewer stands as a silent observer of this ancestral story… as what we give to the present and future often depends on what we received in the past… so many causes and consequences.
About the curator
Domenico de Cherico is an international curator from Italy. From his youth in South Italy, he was early sensitized to the integration of the “other” and the cohabitation of different cultures… the challenges of communication, learning and understanding. Interested in Eastern Europe, he focused on Dan and Lia Perjovschi for his final dissertation ; two Romanian artists who merge media and practices in a context of crisis.
More than narration, his curations entail a semantic approach that brings out the art as a singular language… maybe the more universal one. The exhibition becomes a sentence with a certain choice of words and ponctuations…a certain meaning… uniting the artist and the viewer. Art finally becomes the place of everything we have in common and a place of exchange and comprehension. The projects curated by Domenico offer this kind of experience and open dialogue… at the crossroad of art, literature and history.
Way beyond the limitation of categories or borders, he navigates the art and the world with a sense of freedom and connections… creating, surprising, and unveiling new potentials of expression and interaction through the prism of an exhibition and the eye of the viewer… a shared involvement and emotion!
More info :
https://www.instagram.com/dsc_gallery/
https://www.instagram.com/lubomir_typlt/?hl=fr
ABSTRACT MIMESIS 