3-channel verbal video installation
Exhibited at the group show PAINTING in Galerie Uhrwerk (Berlin, Germany, 2017)
Exhibited at the group show PAINTING in Galerie Uhrwerk (Berlin, Germany, 2017)
CONCEPT
This project invites you to contemplate on an error inherent to art. The core element is a statement (presented below) proclaiming fallacy of artistic expression. The sense of fallacy is achieved by juxtaposing visual and auditory presentations of the text in three languages. The Russian and German texts have been produced from original English text by two independent translators ensuring subjective interpretation of the original concept. As a result, these texts appear as a mere approximation of each other. All three versions of the statement are presented simultaneously to complicate its understanding and satiate it with multiple meanings. These per Vygotsky, lead to eliciting an aesthetical reaction and contemplation. The complication is further increased by mixing the Russian and German auditory channels. The fallacy is emphasized by using the homophones lazy and Leise in the title, which in turn refers to etymology of Leise Jenius.
STATEMENT
Artists know this situation when they have a vision, which they believe needs to be conveyed to the outside world, in one form or another. And they also know the frustration that befalls them when they realize that the outcome only remotely resembles what they have envisioned.
There is ultimate knowledge beyond our conscious comprehension. An attempt to transfer this transcendental knowledge into an intelligible form creates an error. This error occurs when we try to use conscious means of expression to express something beyond consciousness. The error occurs when an artist tries to formulate the ultimate knowledge using the limited means available to him; when he tries to give a frame to something that cannot have a frame. This explains why the work of art appears to be poorer than the idea that inspired it. Art is a result of apprehension of this error when an artist realizes that achieving true knowledge is impossible. This sensation of the error penetrates through all the works of art. Art begins with an act comprising the error.
We experience negative emotions finding ourselves in a state of endless fallacy caused by the inability to achieve genuine outcome. Error evidences that there is something outside of our consciousness. When error takes place (i.e., when one gains sense of freedom, abandonment, rejection), art comes to existence, wandering and searching. Art is an act of filling a blank slate, extracting it from dark, uninhabited, threatening space. Blank is mysterious. Man exists only when he habituates (fills, changes) space. Because the truth falls beyond the grasp of the mind, human activity inevitably contains an error. Hence, making errors is the beginning of human existence.
Human existence is justified by its desire to know the truth. This is expressed in art bearing an error. Art according to Pliny came from outlining shadows. The shadows according to Plato are mere a reflection of the phenomenal reality. Hence, art is a game with a shadow, the game with an error. And that's what makes us human.
There is ultimate knowledge beyond our conscious comprehension. An attempt to transfer this transcendental knowledge into an intelligible form creates an error. This error occurs when we try to use conscious means of expression to express something beyond consciousness. The error occurs when an artist tries to formulate the ultimate knowledge using the limited means available to him; when he tries to give a frame to something that cannot have a frame. This explains why the work of art appears to be poorer than the idea that inspired it. Art is a result of apprehension of this error when an artist realizes that achieving true knowledge is impossible. This sensation of the error penetrates through all the works of art. Art begins with an act comprising the error.
We experience negative emotions finding ourselves in a state of endless fallacy caused by the inability to achieve genuine outcome. Error evidences that there is something outside of our consciousness. When error takes place (i.e., when one gains sense of freedom, abandonment, rejection), art comes to existence, wandering and searching. Art is an act of filling a blank slate, extracting it from dark, uninhabited, threatening space. Blank is mysterious. Man exists only when he habituates (fills, changes) space. Because the truth falls beyond the grasp of the mind, human activity inevitably contains an error. Hence, making errors is the beginning of human existence.
Human existence is justified by its desire to know the truth. This is expressed in art bearing an error. Art according to Pliny came from outlining shadows. The shadows according to Plato are mere a reflection of the phenomenal reality. Hence, art is a game with a shadow, the game with an error. And that's what makes us human.
