Patrik Dvorscak: Arts Position Amid Reality and Illusion.
‘BODY’ Series - Interview 6.
Patrik Dvorscak centres his work around the exploration of figures and their relationship with the surrounding environment. His works expose the stark reality and lost individuality of our world. Here, Patrik discusses the impact of social media on our society and how art can help us to restore our long-forgotten humanity.
Mute Bystanders
La Dolce Vita
You talk about there being a ‘common mind’ in today’s society that subconsciously controls us. How do you experience this in your everyday life and what are your processes for transferring these experiences into your work?
I think we can all feel, what I am about to say, through social media. By sharing content online, people feel included, as if they belong. All the likes and views that serve to connect, contribute to this notion of confirmation. It seems to me, as if the Media is forcing us into such behavior, to permanently do the same as others, go with fashion, go with the flow, and so even win, illusively.
From an evolutionary point of view, by imitating humans, we subcounsciously imagine that we will take possession of the qualities of that individual who inspires us or possesses something we do not have. We humans are imitating animals. We constantly mimic each other’s individuality through activity, thought, or appearance. I guess that individuality is generally very rare, although society demands it or claims that we are individual, if that can be even achieved at all. Various social networking sites can control what users read on their phone, including everything they see around the world and how they see it. And I think that this suggestible, implicit imitation of individuals that inhibits thinking - like in the crowd, is also formed through social networks. Namely, the lack of independence and initiative and the similarity of responses of all others are reflected on social networks as a mass individual. Along with likes and notifications on the social network, this social affiliation jumps on us every minute, like a stimulus, which urges us to look at a cell phone.
Of course, it gives us the feeling that we are the ones who hold and control the position in our lives, which gives us a perceived sense of perfection, a brief stimulation that we associate with value and truth, the identity. Are we really aware of what we are doing? Where's the reality in all this? It feels empty and fake - and that's how I feel it. If you look around you, the whole world seems crazy, collapsing. Capitalism is leading us and we are the product. I try to express that in my work, so I produce more and more people, along with naivety and through an ironic impression of joy and colorful colorism. Together with a group of elements or figures, which face the viewer in the artistic creation, I set the viewer in the position of creator of everything around us – the people that we are, in the course of our stay, responsible for their own and the lives of others. I am trying to make the participant look at something, to which they are responsible.
You mention the influence of social media and our tendency to over-consume images. For anyone viewing your artworks on social media, how would you suggest they approach them to best appreciate their message?
While publishing works on the web has quite a few advantages, such as promoting works, it can serve as a visual platform or some kind of storytelling…yet our aesthetic experience with art depends on how we observe it. It’s completely different if we take time in the gallery and look at every detail drawn by the creator at a few inches of distance. Quite a few senses are actually lost when we look at artwork only on screen. It’s something completely different if you go to a gallery where experiencing art is what we see, smell, and feel. All of this is a more comprehensive experience that we can’t get through the screen. Because my formats are mostly larger, I try to give the viewer a perception of uncontrollability, of monumentality. I want to fascinate the viewer in size, which gives a sense of respect and helplessness. Real life is no different from the reality portrayed in movies, social media ads, and radio programs. Social media is changing our perception of social reality, and replacing it with the illusion of value within mass production, consumerism. With this saturation of bodies I try to achieve a sense of human insignificance, interchangeability, a sense of experiencing humanity as products. I'm not consuming images and products, I'm over-consuming people. These aspects of experiencing my artworks through social media, are, of course, aggravated.
Ctrl C + PPP, diptych - 200 x 300 cm, mixed media on canvas, 2020
You talk about how the increase of our desires correlates with our materialistic needs. How do you go about representing this in your artwork?
From ancient history onwards, humanity faced indescribable numbers of animals, herds of gazelles, grasshoppers, bees, ants - compared to them, the human number was negligibly small. People have always been aware of the dangers of small numbers. That was man's weakness. All forms of belief, myths, rituals, ceremonies are full of this desire. All his actions strive towards the multiplication of people, as well as animals and food. He transfers his desire for multiplication on everything around him. Therefore the ancient desire for a larger number of people probably runs deep into human behavior. However, this growth does not seem to end nowadays. People want growth, but for this to be achieved, there must also be more of everything they live and rely on.
More and more people are producing more and more goods, from animals to plants - the difference in the way of generating living and non-living goods doesn't really matter to us anymore. Whether they produce to sell or to divide, neither side of the production process problematizes, but is admired in all repetition and its numerosity in the eyes of the majority, it could almost look like something sacred. Every reproduction swells to immensity, and since nowadays it's mainly about objects and not so much about increasing people, man's eagerness for increasing these objects increases side to side with his needs, which also affects his attitude towards these objects, especially human beings. In my work I problematize the attitude of the Modern Man that arises from production. This relationship coincides with the global problems humanity is facing today. I try to draw people as even more insignificant. I make them distorted, vulgar, and to some extent, primitive and naive.
What is your answer to us becoming more emotionally invested and present, and do you believe that art can help us to achieve this?
I think that art points to the problems humanity faces, giving a critical dimension to a topic, and even, like an ad, encompasses the potential to indirectly affect someone. Nonetheless, to become more present or emotionally invested, perhaps in my opinion, we require a complete approach of mind and body, and a desire to change oneself. Possibly, meditation is a break with the described imaginary scenarios we are facing, in which other people are more or less merely an asset or a tool with which we change the physical and mental economy. A calm, meditative mind is more flexible, undistorted, pure, clear, in short, more ready for precise decisions that do not follow desire or lust, but the knowledge of the heart. Because of this, perhaps such a mind is much open and able to hear other people. It's one way to look at it.
What role do you believe the artist has in the positive behavioural change of human societies?
Every form of culture must address the issues of relations between people, attitudes towards living, towards social rules and norms, as well as attitudes towards birth and death. Through art, I believe we make people aware of their rights, representative bodies and educate them about the functioning existing systems, showing them variations of different thinking, other perspectives, and extraordinary ways of seeing life. For the uneconomical, rebellious and self-confident existence of humanity, art has always been and will always be more necessary than profit.
TV Stars
Finally, do you have faith that we, as a society, can reclaim our individuality and escape the habit of imitating others around us?
We live in a strange time. Unusual things are happening that undermine the stability of our world. Global environmental problems, suicide bombers, waves of refugees, rulers like Trump. If the world does not show a determined effort to improve, the population as a whole will live much worse, unless something bad, such as global collapse, happens. We face serious risks, but these are risks that we have caused by ourselves. We need to take long-term measures, which is contrary to capitalism and short-term decision-making, which is too often a feature of our politicians. None of the leaders seem to be able to face the problems or have a vision of a different or better future. Why does it seem like these problems are being ignored, or do we all want to withdraw from them instead of facing the real complexity of the world. Perhaps we have unknowingly created a simplified version of the world, a false illusion, capitalism. As this false world grew, we all accepted it because simplicity gave us courage. Even those who thought they were attacking the system - radicals, artists, musicians - actually became part of the illusion because they too, retreated into a fictional world, making their rebellion uneffective, where nothing ever changes. This withdrawal, however, now indicates destruction, the collapse of forces. We need to find a way to fully re-appreciate, respect life, the essence of every being in nature of which we are part of. Too often man wants to rise above nature, to transcend it, at the same time, he heartlessly exploits it for his own needs. One has to start wondering how to look inside oneself.
