Nothing Lost, Nothing Found
Evita Vasiļjeva
21/06 – 22/07/2016
Nothing Lost, Nothing Found
(Reflections on the work of Evita Vasiljeva. Exhibition at the Ateliers, Amsterdam 17-5-16)
First view: In the distance a glimpse of a tall construction made up
of several rectangular frames gives an impression of being both
light/transparent and imposing.
The white wall seen through the empty frame adds to an antiseptic
atmosphere. A fluorescent light placed conspicuously in front of the
object suggests being in a workplace with an object still under
construction. But as one gets closer, the more or less ethereal
quality of an empty frame waiting to be completed changes
drastically. Gray, textured surfaces, grainy and worn appear all over
the frame; right behind it one discovers traces of the remains of an
organic being. At this point the fluorescent light transforms this
‘workplace’ into a stage or podium. Metal rails aligned on the
floor imply something mechanical. Could this be a machine of some
kind? A machine on display? The idiosyncratic mixture of clean
transparency and almost morbid organic traces combined with grey and
moldy building materials recalls a literary masterpiece (artists are
allowed to read): Franz Kafka’s In the Penal Colony.
The central interest in the penal colony focuses on an elaborate
apparatus that administers capital punishment by engraving the law on
the body of the condemned prisoner via a multitude of needles. A
pre-Nazi example of the revenge of language on mankind. Consequently,
one could conclude that Vasiljeva’s exhibit, staging its own
apparatus combined with open and empty spaces, gaps, and hygienic
decay, is an ode to the missing of the twentieth century. In other
words, a dialectical work that explores the tension between
representation and life (of the missing).
Second view: Chrome tubing, likely originating from three pieces of
furniture, forms another type of frame; a small pastel object
resembling a Russian Constructivist architectural model sits
precariously on the edge of the tubing. Instantly one discards all
pre-war obsession with language and a dialectic of the missing. Here
stands a (semi-) frivolous objet trouvé. Like all readymades it uses
the context of its newfound artistic environment to draw attention to
its origins: not art, but industry. The inclusion of the small
architectural model adds to this salute of the industrial, especially
since architecture has always been more a question of industrial
design than autonomous art. (not to mention the tendencies of Russian
Constructivism) Therefore it can be said that the autonomous artist
here, Vasiljeva, quotes from an elsewhere, that is, from at least two
past artistic movements as well as industry as a major life force.
And the more one inspects other objects in her space, from molded
rubber tapestries and naked steel rods to various Constructivist
models, the more one senses the presence of invisible quotation marks
throughout. This quiet irony falls in line with a tradition that
attempts to reconcile the obvious antagonism between freedom and the
universe of production, a tradition no longer concerned with the
lingering dilemmas of an earlier generation – memory and the
redeeming of the past.
Third view: The whole space. Objects and flat images, grey, black,
occasional pastel color. The atmosphere, that of an attic or hidden
laboratory. In spite of an abundance of daylight, the scattered
artworks conjure something opposite, something opaque. Another
impression: a teenage girl’s bedroom (A’s room?), just no poster
of a pop music icon on the wall. And this overall view is the key: it
negates utterly the standpoints of the previous two views. In keeping
with the first view, one could have considered this ‘attic’ a
parable, a scene or even a crime scene suggesting that the missing of
the past will go on haunting us in the future. But taken all
together, these works display no memories, no past, only the present.
And whereas a museum creates a non-space for readymades, a no man’s
land whereby an ordinary industrial object is neither transformed
into art, nor allowed to maintain its functionality as everyday
object, Vasiljeva’s space offers an entirely harmonious, natural
environment that totally dismisses the idea of a tension between art
and daily life or industry. Chrome tubing, rubber, and steel rods are
no longer re-cycled industrial residue looking for recognition, but
part of a completely new universe.
It is a dramaturgy that makes the event of this universe
possible, its actuality. One is lead by the artist on an imaginary
itinerary through the space without being aware of it. A mixture of
raw materials, especially surface textures and sparse color, grips
one’s gaze (a similar use of dramaturgy can be found in
architecture as in Rem Koolhaas’ Netherlands embassy in Berlin with
its signaling use of color and ramped walkway). Perception is the key
here, not meaning a sense of awareness, but rather a tingling of the
senses. One is stimulated to touch the curious surfaces and approach
the objects, peeking into them even when they may be hermetically
closed. The cohesiveness of the entire space, rather than challenged
by this striking appeal to the senses, is strengthened by it.
Cohesion – opposing elements that belong together. Counterpoint.
Opacity and daylight.
So finally nothing of the obsessions of the traditional avant-garde,
like the ‘problem’ of language, or ethical responsibility toward
the world and History. A turning one’s back on text and especially
on context. Still, the pure event with the faintest of external
references cannot avoid some present-day relevance: willingly or not,
the artist posits opacity and incites perception, quite simply
opposing the designer tendency in the arts of neo-liberal times.
Opacity and daylight. Cantatas in Dresden, a taste of Lutheran mysticism.
– Stefan M
Amsterdam, June 2016
Evita Vasiļjeva (born in 1985) is a Netherlands-based Latvian artist. Graduated from the Fine Arts program at the Amsterdam Gerrit Rietveld Academie (in 2012), worked at the artist residency De Ateliers (2014-2016), Amsterdam. Latest solo-exhibitions: “Nothing Lost, Nothing Found” gallery 427, Riga (2016); “Form X” V240, Amsterdam (2016) and “Parallel to Vertical” Kim? Contemporary Arts Centre, Riga (2013); group exhibitions: “Potlach” De Ateliers graduate exhibition, Amsterdam (2016); “A Bigger Peace, a Smaller Peace” the Latvian Museum of Railway History in Riga (2015); “Lily’s Pool” Art in General, New York (2015), “New Participants” De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2014), “Aspen-Kemmern” Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2014); “Vortex“ Project Space Garage, Moscow (2014), “NF Presents: from A to Be to SEE to D” Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2014), “Monograms” Vita Kuben Gallery, Umeå (2014); “Indian Summer” Gallery Fons Welters, Amsterdam (2013).
Support: State Culture Capital Foundation, VKN, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre
Photo: Līga Spunde
