The title of the exhibition wasn't the same as my post's title, it was actually "In Pairs", which may seem strange to those that haven't seen it. There was an exhibition by two artists, Istv谩n Harmath and Ica Harmath, husband and wife, exhibiting sculptures and graphics.
Today I'm going to choose the sculptures as I bet I'm not the only one that has never seen such art. If I say it's amazing, that's an understatement.
This was the first sculpture, right at the entrance and even if you're half blind, you can notice it's not the usual sculpture, not by any standards. It's ammunition, which automatically means killing, but it is more than that. Those cracks are not usual cracks, not damage from inappropriate handling.
Take a closer look.
You see what I see?
Space - Time
This was when I realized those little stick figures are not just protagonists of a single work, but are part of the whole collection and you'll see.
As the antithesis of individualized public works, portraits, and monuments that embody dignity, human greatness, demeanor, noble facial and character traits, Istv谩n Harmath let his social criticism vein express itself with a lot of irony and self-irony in this exhibition. In this as well, the human being plays a leading role, but it is only a copy of it, reduced to the minimum size and identified as a sign. A multitude of stick figures collected in mass, kneaded together, and turned into tools are put into absurd situations, become manipulable, vulnerable components of everyday objects and toys. The products of a kind of sculptural witch's kitchen, small sculptures made of clay and associated with other materials, appear at different points of the gallery. Stick figures are mixed into the dough by the dough rolling stick, they are condensed into mason jars in the pantry, poured into the pan, printed on a tablecloth, attached to a giant spinner, as a filling for machine gun bullets, in the chewed apple core, in the remains of the chewed tree bark, the indulgence of power. Do we know ourselves? I'm afraid so. The sculptor's message can also point to something like this.
This explains a lot and I'm glad I was able to find this article.
A half eaten apple, and the interior is full of stick figures again.
At this point I think any person with a healthy dose of curiosity would think of how these artworks were made.
I think I spent a few minutes looking at these stick figures closely, to see how they were made. The amount of details here and the accuracy is mind blowing.
I can see men in suits,in shorts, women as well. Some have their arms behind their back, others are staying tall ... How much time went into these ...
Same concept, different execution. I'm not sure if it is bronze, but I love to see the stick figures here too.
Does this mean the small creatures are trampled on? Yes, it does. The only way these stick figures can end up on a sole is if you step on them and unfortunately this is happening every day, to us and to others.
Center of Gravity
To give the artwork more gravity, this is also metal, suspecting bronze. It's a weight commonly used before digital scales took over.
The weight is filled with stick figures, which makes it heavier in my opinion.
Here I can recognize myself and so many others, who are crushed under the dough rolling stick of life, or of the state sometimes.
In The Pantry
This is again a very interesting one. all those jars have been modeled after existing jars (I have all of them in my pantry). Each one is filled with stick figures, which, if you think of it, symbolizes us canned by higher powers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a conspiracy theorist and not part of those who are against the government no matter what the topic we are talking about, but sometimes it feels like we're canned.
It was a really interesting experience to see all these stick figures closed inside jars, apples, bullets, crushed by feet and dough rolling sticks. It's not the type of art you buy for your home, or at least I don't think I would, even though it's fantastic.
Now tell me if you've ever seen similar art or if you'd buy any of it.
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