Our Forest
2011
Installation with purpose built wooden display and a series of paintings and drawings
Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland
Shown as part of the exhibition the Life in the Forest, curated by Rael Artel.
Work is conceived as a collaborative project between Siniša Ilić (drawings), Tina Gverović (paintings) and Ben Cain (exhibition design).
We feel that this contemporary moment, which is directed towards classifications, and precision-based bureaucracy, formed through exact and confident facts, is the moment to deal with micro rebellion.
In our previous projects we dealt in slightly different ways with states of emergency and the idea of a type of incessant, barely-tangible disaster. The ‘disaster’ that emerges in the work is ‘disaster’ as a state, not as a particular event, which is geopolitically locatable. Disaster and Emergency seem to be states that we find ourselves inhabiting on social, personal and emotional levels regardless of the specific geographical location.
The issues that we are dealing with in Life in the Forest evolve out of the concerns of our recent work, i.e. issues related to confusion, entrapment and density, which we feel are relevant and pressing issues that surround us on a daily basis.
We will be continuing with a similar approach to the exhibition space as a stage where visitors are involved in the process of ‘reading’ and ‘navigating’ their way through different works. Architectural interventions, appearing to be unstable, will subdivide the gallery space into smaller spatial units, which together create the impression of a labyrinth, wherein we find a series of drawings or individual drawings. The role of the structure is to construct possible frames for dialogue.
We can talk about density here as a disorientating physical experience, which is experienced through a maze-like structure. As such, the above mentioned experiences can be attributed to late capitalism, its endless waiting rooms and bureaucratic walls, however there is not necessarily an intention to depict these places but rather to focus on the states that are the products of such a society.
Our Forest
2011
Ongoing series of paintings, gouache on prepared paper, 270 x 350 mm
Shown as part of Life in the Forest, curated by Rael Artel
Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland
Related Project:
Heritage
2011
Series of paintings, gouache on prepared paper, 270 x 350 mm