EXHIBITION
“…and the only light is in our hands.” – Game
LOCATION
Loggia Gallery, Split, Croatia
DATE
2015
“…and the only light is in our hands.” – Game
In the suggestive interplay of light and shadow, Engelmann elucidates the semantic potential of her new work, which bears the seemingly innocuous title “Game.” The seemingly innocuous title conceals a profound artistic concept that challenges the very foundations of art historical discourse as a collective memory of aesthetic experiences confined to a specific historical era. The artist’s work serves to reanimate the gallery of the rejected and “insufficient”. The “good” works, both her own and those of her academy colleagues, have placed the flip side of the entire history of art abstractly in the exhibition space. It is within the historically established paradigm of art that the “less good” are excluded. The artist effectively eliminates the autonomy of the work by employing UV light, thereby reducing the individual imperfections to a common denominator of “artistic waste.” Furthermore, the utilisation of a UV lamp serves to accentuate the subjective nature of the perception of a work of art. The visitor enters the exhibition space individually and, using the UV lamp as a kind of paintbrush, transforms the space into a private canvas. The delicate interplay of light and shadow gives rise to a malleable artwork that is contingent upon the subjective interpretation and experience of the viewer.
The exhibition was curated by Ana Žanko.
Photo: Denis Vitaljić ©