Remains

The works in the REMAINS series were created in the end of 1995 and the beginning of 1996. They all are the same size (65 x 50 cm). Some are made with soft pastels on colored paper, others with watercolor. Perhaps it will be of interest to say that almost all compositional elements are subsumed under certain mathematical rules. The series itself was inspired by a number of photos relating to research in the field of metal fatigue. A field in which there are high tensions and deformation rates, which, as a final result, produce interesting forms and textures. Later, some images from the trivial round were added to the series, but now subsumed under the main theme.

In the beginning the idea was simply to aestheticize the remains i.e. things utilized and now useless. However, in the process of work, it turned out that a trivial motive like this could be a carrier not only of aesthetics but of additional and more complex meanings as well. Simply because man has the ability or the destiny, to give meaning to things. I would like here to mention a few of the ideas that could be associated with the Remains theme in a broadest sense.

The remains are things left of something else. They tell us that something has existed, something has been there and now it is gone... or at least it is not in its original integral and active state. Thus, we are led to the Transition theme and thereby directly put into the time stream. If we could imagine, what the things have been like in the beginning, how they slowly have changed or have been changed, what they are now and how they will gradually disappear, we could become aware of the slow course of Time.

On the other hand, we could take these deformed elements, this tired matter as a metaphor of the end of the industrial society along with its pretensions and its impudence. Nothing and nobody has escaped the deep quiet gloom of Time, where only the Remains remain for a moment, before finally being absorbed by the Eternity. That is the Remains’ revelation.