The New Gallery - Dozing Rousing

When an art critic encounters a creative artist ~ not for the purpose of writing a review but rather, as in the present case, in the role of "presenter" ~ it gives rise to ethical difficulties. If we can liken the relationship between curator and presenter to that between restaurateur and waiter, a restaurant critic in the guise of waiter certainly occupies a dubious status. Here we have an instance not lacking in symbolism, where the curator is entirely non-existent. The pudding before us is proof enough of those who concocted it, without the creation being assailed by any of the conventional "network" intermediaries ~ project managers, whether private or institutional; curators, gallery~owners, critics, sales agents or collectors. In the exhibition before us, themes of curatorial concept, presentation or performance transformation are at root an integral element of the creative process, internal organs that are among its constructive components and constitute its skeleton.

One may ask therefore what on earth is the critic doing here, in the waiters role moreover? We can discover the answer in the sweep of options embodied in the Biblical Hebrew verb root b.k.r, straddling the semantic range between "visit" and "scrutinize". If we stir in the conventional characterizations of the act of visiting ~ whether the visit is one of courtesy, condolence or sickbed etc. - and apply them to artistic criticism, that critique will be freed of the artificial requirement of wrapping each 0f these disparate "visits" in the guise of a scrutiny to distinguish good from bad. But, as shall soon transpire, none of these options is proffered by the present writer. The critic, here deliberately hauling away the rug from beneath his own feet, simultaneously contrives to seize technical control of one of the network's basic components - the curator - for the purpose of rendering it/him void. This act is designed to restore the creative work to its owner, that is to say, to the expanse where creative artist and spectator meet without intermediaries. The rest inscribed below is merely a matter of saying things for their own sake, and hoping for redemption thereby.
Before us we discover an artistic family, in a dual sense of the term. Aside from the cultural and aesthetic affinities readily visible to the untrained eye, there is also an actual consanguinity. But these artists chose to transform the genealogical kinship into a concert that is expansive rather than restrictive, as familiarity rather than tribality. First and foremost, this finds its expression in the element of yearning for the historical artistic family overall, longings for which deeply permeate their outlook on the world. But here, longings and yearnings are neither terrified reaction, nor nostalgia for a vanished world; rather, they are employed as motive force, as formless energy that permeates generations of artistic creativity. In this sense, the work before us is the outcome of enthusiastic mobility in all quarters of space and time, material and cultural, bestowed upon the group by a complex relationship between spirit and matter, between place and time, between artist and his creation, between art and craft, between man and his fellow.
Hence this is not a collective exhibition, rather, the exhibition of a collective; not one work next to another, rather, one work with and ~ the other. Conversely, it is not a case of miscellaneous variations on a sin e theme that artificially alleviate the task; rather, the contrary: these are numerous themes, different by their very nature, which strive to create a harmonious and multifaceted unity and community. The inter-media character is not merely that of the sundry creative disciplines, which has become a virtual necessity in the artistic creativity of our time; rather, it is the inter-media of multi~culturalism, and of the philosophical, cultural and existential categories, the multitudinous "I ~ you ~ we", within which we live and act. The thematic multi-media and the material inter-media in the creative work of this group, are perceived by them as vital necessity/dictate of the moment because they are ostensibly woven together within the contradictions of reality, in technological and economic globalism on the one hand, and simultaneously, in social and political multiculturalism on the other. It is therefore to be expected ~ so they believe ~ that the result will in any case not be homogenous, rather, heterogenous, an exhibition of togetherness for the purpose of creating something new.
The fundamental key that facilitates this position ~ arguably, dictates it ~ is the necessity of experimenting with the creative process itself, rather than adopting a position a priori and by means of the artistic object. True, these young artists are not afraid to proclaim that they are not so much creating, as experiencing the joy of creativity and the creative joy. The oblique questions they pose are: how come that in a culture wherein individualism is the imperative of the day - and, how absurd, virtually an enforced necessity - in the test of result achieved, many of the works created look identical or express the identical notion. It is precisely the young artist who is supposed to achieve freedom, but their experience with the creative community proves that it is not so, indeed, the opposite may be the case. Does this state of affairs stem from the fact that, to be an individual in our Western culture ~ to be "yourself", isolated within a society of individuals - is no longer a challenge, and has long been transformed into a new form of social terrorism? That possibility should not be ruled out. Be that as it may, from their own experience they have learned that the more their principal effort is invested in creativity, it constitutes an anomaly, an exception in principle from the rule, whereby ambition appears to be immeasurably greater than the substantive elements 0f the product. There always lurks the danger that the individual artist ~ become a copywriter for the actual practice of individualism.
However, as we have noted, this question and others stem from their joint work indirectly, not from some critical manifesto. Their entire attention is channeled into the joy of experimentation that connects them to the great works of all times. Their most powerful and salient motivation is the overriding desire not to be bored; but not boring others, heaven forbid, is also a kind of challenge, a sell-imposed demand to smash the gallery ice cube, position rather than opposition, a concept of shouldering social and cultural responsibility, not issuing a challenge or throwing down a conceptual gauntlet. Thus, for example, the question of their participation in the local social and cultural scene is without unnecessary effort or formal justification. It is participation by default, stemming from the local existential totality, without mobilized or artificial effort.

Before I ever start sculpting, it is my habit to a lot of drawing. The interminable process of drawing not define artistic objective, rather, an opportunity to throw off the shackles of psychologism, to break out of numbing probability and find myself with a pure context of sobriety.
Whereupon I take up the clay, the material of the artisan, The flexibility of the

clay encompasses within itself an ironical significance. In reality, clay is unpredictable, it operates by the rules of the grotesque.

And it is left up to me to be disciplined.

Max Epstein, L.O.S.

Of my childhood memories, I retain the appearance of the tablecloth at the entrance to my grandparents' home. The cloth was of worn velvet, its colour bordeau. I have now come to realise that that faded patch of colour bore within it more information about my grandmother's daily life, than that daily life itself.
When I work in textiles, I don't set myself any decorative objective. I don't paint. The taut thread itself constitutes the source of the information. A mis-reading silences the source. I experiment with various possibilities, one by one, contemplating them, picking up clues.
Finally, there has to come the realisation, verging upon a mystical sensation: the thread is disciplined, and I understand what I have to do.

Katya Oicherman, L.O.S.

On one occasion, I was taking photographs at a wedding. There were few guests, and those who came bore complex expressions. Afterwards, the bride said: "I won't show these pictures to anyone, because everyone will understand that the groom's mother refused to enter the hail."
That was when I grasped what it is I seek to photograph: situations, emotions, sensations stemming from outside the frame. Dozing, daydreaming, sleeping ~ all these provide photographic materials no less interesting that awakening.
I trust my camera, it doesn't he, it reveals what I'm seeking, converting the events utterly unnoticed in the everyday, into non-fortuitous happenings within the frame.