Downcast eyes

Terms such as paranoia, narcissism, and exhibitionism suggest how powerfully visual experience, both directed and received, can be tied to our psychological processes... Vision has been frequently linked by psychologists to the "normal" emotions of desire, curiosity, hostility, and fear. The remarkable ability of images originally construed as mimetic representations or aesthetic ornaments to be transformed into totemic objects of worship in their own right also bespeaks vision's power to evoke hypnotic fascination...
All excellent example of its (vision) power can be discerned in no less central a human phenomenon than religion. From the primitive importance of the sacred fire to the frequency of sun-worship in more developed religions... and the sophisticated metaphysics of light in the most advanced theologies, the ocular presence in a wide variety of religious practices has been striking...
No less symptomatic of the power of the optical in religion is the tendency of the visionary tradition to posit a higher sight to the seer, who is able to discern a truth denied to normal vision. Here is so-called third eye of the soul is invoked to compensate for the imperfections of the two physical eyes. Often physical blindness is given sacred significance, even if at times as a punishment for transgressions against the gods.

One of the concepts

The general subject of my work is a dramatic conflict between the nature as a “given” reality and industrial system as invention of man. Consuming the environment, people do not take in account its live essence. The mechanism of industrial system has run its course and it cannot stop. For me, I had a long experience of living in a highly polluted area of my home country (the Ukraine), where everyone can feel the post-effects of industrialization.
The image of nature which I want to draw is far from mythological “wild force” or scientific “phenomenon of the universe”. I would like to express an idea has become so apparent today – “the fragility of nature”. I want to construct an object which will represent, in a certain symbolic way, the interaction between the nature and our industrial reality.
My way to realize this idea is intrinsically connected with materials I want to use. I believe that materials represent a certain meaning by themselves and they can even suggest the concept. I would like to use ice sculpturally to represent the fragility of nature.

I think that the most interesting part of this work is a performance. It is a natural process of ice melting. By this I want to show the declining of an environmental system. The red colour indicates violent intrudance of idustrialization into the nature. The metal construction symbolizes a system that provides this declining.

Olena Karasyuk

Artist's Comments

“If you really want it: don’t buy it, turn it into lines.” That must be have been one of motives for Alevtina Kakhidze to make several black and white drawings of luxury commodities and their prices. Moving temporary to the West she was fascinated by fashion in all its forms and the mass of ‘beautiful’ objects available. This is a complex subject, particularly in relation to her Ukrainian background. She is interested in this highly industrialized commercialism and consumerism and wonders how financial confidence and disposability affect the individual.

Unknown Pleasure

Pleasure often escapes the framework of culture because it is a difficult experience. As Roland Barthes puts it, pleasure may not only be experienced as frivolous fun and joy within the limits of cultural codes, but also as a transgressive bliss that is non-cultural, unspeakable and lethal for the subject. The project "unknown pleasures" aims to use this theme as a starting point, combining art, architecture, philosophy and psychoanalysis. It brings artists and theoreticians together to discuss and reflect on the topic 'pleasure' on a critical level. It will span over a period of two months and consist of three sub-projects including an exhibition, symposium and a weblog with videos and screenings. The exhibition consists of a combination of existing work and work that has been realized "on the spot". It will be presented as a shop where the works of the artists will reflect on the theme. The works will be on the one hand desirable or fetish objects and on the other hand more critical objects. The project wants to put a society into question where pleasure is no longer repressed but is more and more central to our thinking about man and space. Pleasure is all too often associated with consumption, something the advertisement industry is keen to exploit. By following one's own desires and tastes, the consumer experiences a freedom that does not have to give any justification whatsoever, as the striving for pleasure is the only aim. Nowadays, we are overwhelmed with terms referring to happiness and fun. This turn to enjoyment is, in the cultural world, practically inescapable. Revealing in this matter are books that document and draw up an inventory of shopping, like "The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping", co-edited by Rem Koolhaas. Or as Rhonda Lieberman puts it in her article in ArtForum: "The Guide to Shopping addresses the great stealth campaign of our day -no, not bioterrorism! but the makeover of all human intercourse into Shopping. The privatization of realms that once maintained some posture of autonomy from the market place has recast schools, hospitals, churches--even Art museums!--into retail-or-bust operations, using mall-like ambience and marketing to "control" fickle consumers and keep 'em coming. And while we "shop" for health, government, God, even Art, we've become students, patients, and citizens of... Prada, Nike, or whatever fill-in-the-blank global brand image--looking to retail for, like, everything" . The li nk between pleasure and architecture, which is partially explored in the book “The Architecture of Happiness” by the Swiss-born author Alain de Botton, will also be examined, with the phenomenon of the shopping mall as a perfect example. Almost our entire world has been reduced to the sphere of shopping. Even Ecology [C] becomes Shopping (harnessing "green" purchasing power to save the planet).

Alevtina Kakhidze

about

I use pig’s body languages to capture the moment when its vulnerable or visceral state is
depicted. I place it in specific situations to evoke a certain emotion and allure the spectators to
empathize with their plight. This process is very direct and narrative like a fairy tale. I ask the spectators to strip off their civilized rationality to get closer to their original, yet lost emotional innocence.
I visualize the mechanism of forces that oppress me, such as all kinds of customs, power, and
pressures from our society through the geometric architectures or ready-made found objects. The contrast in scale between the structures and an animal character is an important element in my artworks. This contrast enhances the emotional effect for the animal characters. Through the situation and interaction between an abstract structure and animal characters, I reveal the latent desire, absurd order, or emotional struggles in mundane life.

The title of this piece is "Who am we?"Guess who I am out of the three pigs? I raise a fundamental question about who we are and how we define ourselves through the edge of sexual issues: masochism, sadism, and voyeurism.