Petr Písařík employs his wide range of visual expression in this site-specific installation for the exhibition space Whitebox, which has long followed the overlap of design into art. However, in this particular exhibition we see the opposite – Písařík plays with design and expands its boundaries. The Latin title Tondeo materiam, translated as “I cut/trim/tear material/matter,” literally delineates the character of the artist’s work based on the principle of collage. At the center of attention lies the artists’ work with ornament. In his painterly objects the artist develops a Japanese flower pattern which, in combination with velvet covered objects, creates new sets based on the principle of European modernity. At the same time ornament is applied to tapestries and material. The tapestries’ patterns have been created using computer adjusted images in which the artist fragmentizes his own objects. Images of details are mirrored several times and assembled in a certain rhythm in order to create an optical moiré effect. In his installation Písařík has also incorporated a collaboration on blue fabrics with Petra Gupta Valentová (Im.Printed), Hana Poislová (Fiží) and Magdaléna Rajnohová. The artist also designed his own stamp with a Japanese pattern for the blue fabric used in the exhibition. In contrast, glass crystals from the Czech glassworks house Preciosa mediate the effect of color and shine. The resulting, unrepeatable installation is a darkened room with a decadent air (reminiscent of the room in Joris-Karl Huysmans’ novel À rebours (Against Nature or Against the Grain), balancing on the edge of luxury, elegance and ordinariness, an intimate space provocatively opening possibilities of seeing in contrary perspectives.
Adriana Primusová
Petr Písařík: Tondeo materiam (GASK, Whitebox)
