ALMA GALLERY 9.09-8.11.2013 IVARS POIKĀNS Weekday afternoon in wonderland “I wish to present serious things with lightness, without wailing or tension.” Ivars Poikāns In 2010 the Latvian National Museum of Art held a retrospective show of works by Ivars Poikāns. New works by the artist can be seen at the Alma Gallery from 9 September till 8 November in the exhibition “Weekday afternoon in wonderland”. The unique style of this master of irony is characterised by powerful imagery and intellect that go hand in hand with a brilliant baroque form of painterly expression and well-aimed ideas. Although a light shade of fantasy permeates the exhibition, there is no doubt that this story is about us. The symbols in the paintings (briefcase, axe, light bulb, lily etc.) are signposts to a socially directed critique that no longer speaks of this decade but more broadly, about the age. An age that is equally characterised by such Western phenomena as rationalism, capitalism and the entertainment industry, as well as the absurd legacy of the Soviet period. And somewhere in between the aesthetics of the Hollywood fantasy genre and Bulgakov’s surrealism there are these genies – a slightly secretive and even frightening group of Observers. They enfold the exhibition viewer in their motionless, saucer-like stare, conspicuously contrasting with the not too sensible bustling of the active “agents”. Poikāns casually refers to this group of images as the “world police” and that makes one think. The task of the police is to maintain order but it doesn’t look as if the fascinating little creatures are about to start anything, at least not in the immediate future. There really is something in their silhouettes that suggest they are biding their time but we don’t know whether it will be something good or bad; will it be the lash or a cake? What kind of powers do they have, what are they going to do with the information they have gathered? Is it a hint at the apocalypse or just at philosophical reflection? The tiny faces appear to be reticent, we can only see a faint smirk but the classification of these observers – Volcano, Primus, Lily, Light bulb – allow us to perceive them as mythological images, as a family of one type of deities. The shimmering colouring of the paintings, the sparkle of the vibrating colours and texture heightens the unpleasant feeling created by the lack of clarity. Although it may not exactly be an alarm, a premonition it is. Perhaps some quite different music will be heard in the last chords of the sunset and I doubt if it will be the sounds of the woodchopper’s axe or the soft swish of a duster. We need a solution but the artist does not provide one, he only creates the preconditions of its possibility. Ivars Poikāns lives and works in Riga.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 13:34:15 +0000
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