ALCHEMICAL OPERATIONS I, 2022

In this achromatic miniature space, time flows at a special pace. Some parts of the constructions give a feeling of rest and stagnation, others seem to be engaged in activity - processes are taking place in them. These half-frozen-half-functioning structures inhabit a territory between the new and the old, the dead and the living, and between the eternal and the transient.

The nocturnal landscape presented here shelters a construction that is like a hybrid between an organism and an industrial structure. "Alchemical Operations" resembles an architectural construction of a facility with an unclear function. The construction is divided into three parts - high, medium and low. The middle level resembles the production department of an industrial building. This part is like a system in which mechanical processes take place - a kind of material activity. The upper level is represented by upward-pointing form, slightly elevated above the other elements. In this part on high stands something like a chimney. Here the connection is with the sky, the air, even the cosmos. In the lower level, amorphous forms are located, resembling puddles or leaks of waste material. The symbolic connection in them is with the dead, the old, the spent, the superfluous and the unnecessary.

However, the work has an abstract character and the listed analogies are not clearly visible and easily distinguishable. The levels are also not categorically separated, but are woven into each other to create an indivisible organism.

"Alchemical Operations I" was part of the exhibition IMPLOSION, curated by Simeon Stoilov, within the framework of the exhibition "7 OUTSIDE TRAFFIC"

Sculptural composition; metal, wood, rubber, plastic, abrasive sponges, nylon, asphalt, tracing paper, foam board; 26 x 50 x 50 cm

Photographs by
Kevork Vanlyan