translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
180612: Hilger Contemporary - Vasilena Gankovska
Hilger Contemporary
Vasilena Gankovska
31.5.12 – 21.6.12
City as a display for mankind and clichés
By Gesche Heumann
Sometimes one can watch tourist holding a camera with their stretched arm as if they were a dog following its owner. While they stroll around Vienna, they film the city and see Vienna in the camera display, in which it appears smaller and preserved. At home, these tourists will presumably often look at these images of Vienna and possibly forestall the hardship of travelling anew.
Vasilena Gankovska also walks around cities and afterwards paints compiled views located in Rome or in a coffee shop or in a park – the figures reminding of the pseudo-private photo albums of peripatetic Facebook friends. “The Photographer 2” (2010) depicts a young woman with her camera at hand, looking into the left corner over her shoulder, as if there was something she might have forgotten to snap a shot of. Her posture implies the hardship of tourists not to miss anything. Her attire is practical; her shoes are flat and she schleps a huge camera – reminiscent of Scarlett Johansson in “Vicky Christina Barcelona”.
Silhouette, attire and the minimal facial expression of the figures in all of Gankovska’s current works were painted with a permanent marker or stencilled in Banksy-style. The background landscape is held in colour. The colours are subdued and appear in a calculated dimmed manner. The paint application is planar and there are no stains, drops or any other hints that her paintings were created by hand. Leaves on trees or bushes are fabricated by artfully outlining an empty space with green colour. The artist mainly focuses on an elegant and extremely reduced style, comparable with Roy Liechtenstein and, with regard to the compositions, also with Tim Eitel.
Hilger contemporary
1010 Vienna, Dorotheergasse 5
Tel.: +43 1 512 53 15
Fax: +43 1 513 91 26
180612
hilger contemporary
1010 Wien, Dorotheergasse 5
Tel: +43-1512 53 15, Fax: +43-1-513 91 26
Email: contemporary@hilger.at
http://www.hilger.at
Öffnungszeiten: geschlossen
hilger contemporary
1010 Wien, Dorotheergasse 5
Tel: +43-1512 53 15, Fax: +43-1-513 91 26
Email: contemporary@hilger.at
http://www.hilger.at
Öffnungszeiten: geschlossen