As a part of this year’s Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, nine young Czech artists and designers created decorations for two buildings in Brussels…
The flourishing of textile waste
The artistic duo Pošová and Fastrová have been working on sustainability for the last few years of their almost decade-long collaboration. This is also reflected in the tapestry woven from textile waste. The fabrics used come from second-hand clothing and linens and from factories where the fabric residues would have been discarded.
The scene stitched into the fabric illustrates not only its creation itself, but also the metamorphosis between man, plant and waste. Thanks to the self-illustrative content, aside the environmental appeal, an even more personal topic od the two artists mothers had sneaked into the depicted themes: motherhood. Also in the allegorical sense of mother earth giving life.
The tapestry took the artists more than six months to be made by hand. They started by cutting and weaving strips of fabric, which are then woven together one by one on a grid. The work, with its handmade, homespun aesthetic, creates a functional contrast to the clean, stripped-down space of the representative hall.
Johana Pošová & Barbora Fastrová
Breasts, Children, Creatures, and Waste
Handmade tapestry from discarded textiles 2022
As a part of this year’s Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, nine young Czech artists and designers created decorations for two buildings in Brussels…
Morphing furniture
The iconic Czech company TON was approached by the designers based on its strong tradition and ubiquity not only across Czech households, but also in public spaces. Partly new and partly upcycled from second-hand stores, new and second hand furnitures morphs when combined with the waste from factory production into the shapes and forms of animated, growing flora. Chairs and armchairs become sculptural objects between fine and applied art. The artists put the different pieces together like individual puzzle pieces. The atypical jigsaw puzzle is completed with new upholstery - fabrics woven with a unique Czech art protis technique grasped by the Overall Office brand. This technique allows collage-like combination of different shapes into one layer of fabric.
The authors also play with the boundary between functional furniture and art. Some pieces still retain a comfortable seating function, others become thanks to the increasing interpenetration of organic shapes mere sculptures to visually admire. At the same time, individual shapes encourage and sometimes even physically enforce physical proximity and face-to-face dialogue.
The project is thus once again a reminder of the necessity not to forget the ecological themes, which here emerge fantastically, in a surreal shift, even from the most common, normally invisible objects of office furnishings - stools, chairs, armchairs and coat hangers. At the same time, it points to a kinship with nature, the necessity of dialogue and listening, which should not be avoided even in isolated office spaces with their own well-maintained climate.
Johana Pošová & Barbora Fastrová
The Furniture
Bent wood, upcycled wooden furniture, textile
Manufacturing: Před–po (Jan Švéda & Martin Labík)
Upholstery: Overall Office & Kristýna Bratinková 2022
As a part of this year’s Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, nine young Czech artists and designers created decorations for two buildings in Brussels…
Morphing furniture
The iconic Czech company TON was approached by the designers based on its strong tradition and ubiquity not only across Czech households, but also in public spaces. Partly new and partly upcycled from second-hand stores, new and second hand furnitures morphs when combined with the waste from factory production into the shapes and forms of animated, growing flora. Chairs and armchairs become sculptural objects between fine and applied art. The artists put the different pieces together like individual puzzle pieces. The atypical jigsaw puzzle is completed with new upholstery - fabrics woven with a unique Czech art protis technique grasped by the Overall Office brand. This technique allows collage-like combination of different shapes into one layer of fabric.
The authors also play with the boundary between functional furniture and art. Some pieces still retain a comfortable seating function, others become thanks to the increasing interpenetration of organic shapes mere sculptures to visually admire. At the same time, individual shapes encourage and sometimes even physically enforce physical proximity and face-to-face dialogue.
The project is thus once again a reminder of the necessity not to forget the ecological themes, which here emerge fantastically, in a surreal shift, even from the most common, normally invisible objects of office furnishings - stools, chairs, armchairs and coat hangers. At the same time, it points to a kinship with nature, the necessity of dialogue and listening, which should not be avoided even in isolated office spaces with their own well-maintained climate.
Johana Pošová & Barbora Fastrová
The Furniture
Bent wood, upcycled wooden furniture, textile
Manufacturing: Před–po (Jan Švéda & Martin Labík)
Upholstery: Overall Office & Kristýna Bratinková 2022
Hada and Child
Parter: Reinvented Area of Masarykova Street
5. 8. — 18. 9. 2021 / Main Hall DUÚL and public space
Work presented at group exhibition Parter. Hada the mythical creature with snakes for extremities had a child since her last public appearance in Entrance gallery in 2020.
paternoster
Vladimír Ossif & guests: Jan Domicz, Barbora Fastrová & Johana Pošová
curated by Jen Kratochvil
24 June -16 July 2020
Zahorian & Van Espen Prague
the world around may have stopped for a moment,
yet deep inside some early 20th century buildings paternoster lifts keep running
nothing has really changed in the life of these resilient relicts of the times long passed
why are they still around one might wonder
despite multiple attempts to ban them due to health & safety issues and regular accidents,
there is something reassuring about their constant movement
and that seems to be enough
observing the world around through our windows for a couple of months did something to us
something so far unintelligible happened to our bodies and minds
something changed, our perception shifted, our sensitivity heightened
all the protests outside in the streets, right at this point in time, are no coincidence
all the anger, all the disappointment, and dissatisfaction was there the whole time, just capped and concealed, carefully wrapped in apathy and resignation
all of it was now unearth and exposed in one large public outburst, and it keeps growing
but paternoster lifts are still running as if nothing happened
as if nothing happened
the city has changed
the streets spreading around like some kind of a visceral network of veins or guts lost for a moment all their blood
something no one could have predicted
and while their vividness is back, it is somewhat different, even though it’s hard to know how
the map has changed
it’s more abstract now, does this street really connect to that one and can I get there or there through here
infrastructures underneath, structures around and superstructures somewhere in the skies
endless horizontal layers stuck on top of each other in a vertical choir of voices
or a giant storage space
all singing or screaming, hard to discern right now
plane fields became spatial
inhabited by various critters with their own personal stories and their own subjective perception
and paternoster lifts are still running
do we still believe in the linearity of time?
do we still believe in time?
what do we believe in?
what is a circle?
and how does it represent our short human lives?
and how does it represent the life of all the other critters?
and how does it relate to everything living or still?
we need to reinvent cartography, define new terms of conduct, discover new intimacy, eroticism, and new structures
vertical, horizontal, diagonal, digital, above, below, in between
while paternoster lifts will keep running
in circles
on and on
can a painting represent a map? and what if that map becomes a song?
can a film become a building – an object in space?
can an object animate itself into a being?
can we change?
can paternosters one day stop?
HADA
Barbora Fastrová and Johana Pošová have been working together on joint projects since 2014. In their multimedia practice, this authorial duo continuously explores the relationship between nature and (Western) culture. In the fall of 2018, they started a long-term project called Cheap Art, which they presented for the first time at AMU Gallery in Prague (including the curator, Tereza Jindrová, as another participant of the project). The authors focus on recycling as both a creative procedure and topic. They experiment with to what extent their attempt to act consciously and ecologically influences the preparation of the exhibition, its final shape, and the audience’s experience. They strictly utilize previously used materials and refuse to include the use of electricity.
On one hand, this attempt to lower production and usage (of matter and energy) is a playful ‘exercise’ in which the artists set up rules and boundaries. It is a widely understandable gesture that reacts to society of hyperconsumerism, including in the artistic scene which very often covers the mechanisms of consumption behind a hypocritical and allegedly critical discourse. This exhibition project is an immediate experience and an example of the failure, tension, and ambiguity of setting up boundaries, particularly if we take ecology into account without giving up on creating and exhibiting our work. The aim of this project is not to present a perfect ecological result, but rather to demonstrate the difficulty and the paradox that comes from this way of working.
Sochy s názvem “55% až 65%” umělecké dvojice Johany Pošové a Barbory Fastrové znázorňují množství vody, které obsahuje lidské tělo.
An average person is generally 7-and-a-half heads tall Průměrný člověk měří většinou 7 a půl hlavy.
A heroic figure, used in the heroic for the depiction of gods and superheroes, is eight-and-a-half heads tall. Most of the additional length comes from a bigger chest and longer legs.
Postava hrdiny, která se objevuje v eposech, zobrazujících bohy a superhrdiny, měří 8 a půl hlavy. Většinou je přidaná délka zapříčiněna větším hrudníkem a delšíma nohama.
An ideal figure, used when aiming for an impression of nobility or grace, is drawn at 8 heads tall.
Ideální postava, která má vzbuzovat dojem ušlechtilosti nebo půvabu, se kreslí 8 hlav vysoká.
Ancient Egyptian art used a canon of proportion based on the “fist”, measured across the knuckles, with 18 fists from the ground to the hairline on the forehead.
Egyptské starověké umění používalo jako kánon proporce, jež vychází z měření na “pěsti”, měřené přes klouby, což je 18 pěstí od země k vlasům na čele.
The ideal man in several different positions is inscribed into a circle. Ideální postava v několika různých postojích je vepsána do kruhu.
CheapArt
Among the values we seek in art, beauty is the most traditional one, the one that is even today generally expected (if not required) from the works of art. Although it is impossible to establish an absolute and universal standard of beauty, we can see that certain objects and motives were and still are (often within otherwise distant cultures) considered to be its quintessential domain
Visual deception, illusion set up by manipulation with the medium (or the model) and facilitated by the preconceptions of the spectator’s eye, features heavily in her work. It thus reminds us that perception itself is not stable and beauty can be seen in unexpected places. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
What does it mean to know how to look at art? It also means “to understand” that what is represented as the subtext of each representation is the artist’s individuality.
Apart from their mutual friendship, the artists share a striving for non-traditional methods of narration. They also share an interest in the themes related to feminine perception of the world, and in the interpretation of emotion and vision.
Finally, we can observe the paradox and absurdity of categorizing that which is feminine and that which is masculine: is meticulous handcraft and housework natural for women while men can inscribe their tempestuous creative climax on the canvas with paint, or is a man the keeper of rationality while woman represents intuition and untrammeled instinct?
However, rather than conducting a purely rational analysis of a particular phenomenon, ### is interested in broader structures and processes
This is the creation of a fecund substrate for experiencing togetherness, responsibility, continuity.
Tenderness and intimacy of the presented works function as a subversive strategy, consciously open to interpretation as a form of parody or caricature.
They remind us of the frailty of all values, power structures, cultures and our own lives. Memory doesn’t exist without time and time fundamentally means disintegration.
As observer we can either recoil from such a painting due to fear, impatience and disinterest, or make our gaze at home in it.
These might be banal thoughts, but maybe we can perceive their obverse side in a certain evacuation of imagination from the contemporary world, or rather in the shift in proportion between (virtual) imagination and (real) experience. ### can also be understood as an analogy to the way the technical image and virtual reality increasingly bleed into the palpable world, and through the quantity of their impulses and increasing perfection (in the mimetic sense) rather transform the capabilities of the imagination into a form of advanced consumption.
The ### exhibition does not set out to formulate a single critical position or to be in any way activist.
### wants to avoid the cliché of the urge to attack or, on the other hand, to defend the necessity and usefulness of art and artists. The subtext to these varied artistic approaches and varied audience reactions to an open concept can be framed by the idea that contemporary artistic production in fact explicitly shows the arbitrariness – which is, in other words, a lack of meaning, or “just” the contextual, historical motivations – which is not however in any way limited to the confines of the art world: it is equally felt, if only differently integrated, evaluated and sublimated, in the “work” experiences of an increasingly vast segment of modern society.
Contemplation within the gallery’s white cube does not create a new reality which wouldn’t be present in the world “outside,” but rather insistently focuses attention to the most banal of facts, generating a certain existential tension. It is about the detail. Changing a part changes the whole.
Simply said, we wanted the manner of the installation to be balanced and aesthetically satisfying; so that it would give each work enough space to stand out.
The final outcome – the exhibition – however shouldn’t be a “ dictionary of intermedia,” but rather should form an organic whole.
To match Nature, or actually surpass it, is an illusory yardstick for the artist, “a hunt for the white whale”, and both artists are well aware of that.
There is no doubt that the exhibition ### will provoke a contradictory response on the part of the general and professional public. It may produce cracks among the viewers, too, when it comes to questions of taste, invention, relation to tradition, participation as well as the degree of meaningfulness and communicability. However, in any case, I am convinced that the potential discussions to emerge out of these cracks will be of meaning and value.
(recycled curatorial text by Tereza Jindrová)
Barbora Fastrová & Johana Pošová: CHEAP ART
Curated by: Tereza Jindrová
December 14, 2018 – January 27, 2019
GAMU (The Gallery of the Academy of Performing Arts), Prague
The discussion on the topic of the upcoming environmental catastrophe and the related themes of sustainable development, nature conservation and ecology have steadily been making their way into Czechia.
The joint work of Barbora Fastrová and Johana Pošová has however been developing and exploring the topic of the relationship between culture and nature, of the “natural” and the “artificial” for a long time. The method as well as content of their exhibition Cheap Art for AMU Gallery is recycling. The artists experiment with how far they can influence the preparation of the exhibition and its final form, as well as the audience’s experience of it. They attempt a conscientious approach and strictly use only recycled materials, as well as eschewing the use of electricity.
This attempt at decreasing the production and consumption (of material and energy) is partly “an exercise” in which the artists themselves decide on the rules and the limitations of their work. This is a generally comprehensible gesture which reacts to the society of hyperconsumption, entailing also the art world; this however often hypocritically obfuscates the mechanisms of consumption and waste by implementing a so-called critical discourse. This exhibition project is also a form of immediate experience and an example of failure, tension and ambiguity in determining boundaries. The artists keep in mind the ecological standpoints while also wanting to continue exhibiting and making art. The central reason for producing the exhibition is not to present a perfectly ecological outcome, but rather to demonstrate in practice the difficulties and paradoxes resulting from working with such specific limitations.