Under Pressure
The idea of pressure, being under pressure from other people’s actions or their expectations and surviving or not surviving it.
Part 4: Concrete Drawing
Focus is on the contrast of the nature of materials: gentle and fragile (tracing paper), solid and heavy (plaster, concrete). The contradiction of the materiality but similar visual qualities of the materials have an ability to puzzle the viewer, twisting his or her perception of the reality.
While destroying gentle materials by applying pressure it became evident behaviour of tracing paper cubes to this ‘inconvenience’ is directed purely by chance. It is impossible to know when it will reach the breaking point, how and where it will go. This is also true for people’s reaction to pressure, we never know when a person will break and what will trigger it. This, in its turn, brings the work to the idea of an object being destroyed in the process of its creation. Which literally means that in the end the action, process of making becomes more important than the final outcome.
The materials were defined by architectural connotations, which embodied the idea of successful endurance of pressure. Concrete, plaster, plastic (as analog of glass), metal and wood are construction materials which associate with architecture.
Monochromatic aesthetic and simple geometric forms, which do not take too much attention to themselves leaving space only for the idea of pressure I try to visualize.
The only definite thing in the project - the object put under pressure will break sooner or later. What exactly will cause the break, how it will develop, where it will go is not clear. There is only outside pressure, which starts the destruction, the path of which is guided by invisible forces and chance.
The artist is the force which initially applies pressure, build the new layers, enhancing the ‘uncomfortable’ conditions, taking objects to the point of no return.
The objects exposed to pressure are made from paper, tracing paper, plastic, materials much more gentle and fragile than concrete and plaster, which embodied the forces bringing pressure. This contradiction of materiality and play with contrast became one of the questions in the discussion. It got additional development in 2d work.
Hand-made paints were created out of rust and concrete. It has been done with an idea about architectural connotations in mind. Architecture here is an example of a successful endurance of constant pressure. It has in itself such balance and strength which let it stand even under humongous amounts of weight and layers it contains. This connection to architecture is reflected in both sculptural and 2d work.
Drawings created with harsh materials are executed on gentle and relatively fragile materials - paper, tracing paper, transparent plastic. They depict sculptures built with very heavy construction materials, but show them in completely different light - delicate, translucent, airy. Drawings of destructions, moment of weakness look very beautiful and mesmerizing. Everything here is built on contradiction and contrast.
Drawings as well as sculptures are based on multi-layering, which in its turn is one of the moving forces of appearing pressure. Paper and tracing paper literally have to endure it under all the layers of liquid paints. The paper changes its shape, texture, deforms, can completely loose its initial qualities and appearance. And all that depends on the amount of applied pressure. It is impossible to calculate beforehand as well as predict the drawing you’ll get in the end. The way paint will behave, where the drips will go, how it will work with previous layers. Such behaviour supports the idea of unpredictability connected to pressure and developed before in 3d work.
The idea of pressure developed on to the sculptures. After they were put onto their ‘pedestal’ they became unstable and fragile (still preserving the heaviness and material harshness). They are in constant danger of being knocked over by someone, or they will fall because of the unevenness of the floor. This is invisible potential pressure from outside world, which they have to endure, literally become the idea which they initially only illustrated.
Thank you!
