Worlds collide in Victor Man exhibition
Transylvanian artist Victor Man intrigues Richard McComb with tantalising clues.
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Should you tire of dreaming of white Christmases, and fancy a monochrome one instead, the Ikon Gallery’s stark exhibition by Romanian artist Victor Man is the ideal place for some winter reflection – and a spot of voyeurism.
Man’s work is informed by the cultural diversity and wounded historical past of his native Transylvania yet also hints at the new found freedoms enjoyed by its people in the post-Ceausescu era. An atmosphere of myths, legends and folklore resonates – one the of the works features an animal skin, indicative of hunting, forests, darkness and fairytales – and this shared heritage collides to compelling effect in representative ideas of concealment, illusion, and, at times, brutalist oppression and violence.
The Ikon exhibition, Attebasile, explores, in the artist’s words, a “terrain of turbulence, where truth becomes a matter of clues”. Whether this is a truth worth seeking is left to the viewer to discover. The artist is merely our guide and he plays deft tricks as he leads us on our journey into Transylvania.
Man, aged 34, is a member of an exciting group of artists centred on the Plan B exhibiting space in his home of Cluj-Napoca. (You may not have heard of the place, but football fans will detect a familiar ring to the name – Chelsea having play Cluj last week in the Champions League).
Man studied at Ioan Andreescu University of Art and Design, Romania, and the Jerusalem Studio School, Israel, and won international recognition when his work was presented at the 2007 Venice Biennale.
Nigel Prince, curator at the Ikon Gallery, first met Man in 2005 at an exhibition of the artists’ work in London, and was struck by the Romanian’s vision, his application of paint and his choice of colour palette. He was equally intrigued by Man’s propositions and ideas he saw expressed in the work.
Prince says: “There is this obscured metaphorical relationship to the idea of a meeting place of two worlds – where two points collide.”
Without labouring the theme, it is possible to detect in Man’s painting and sculpture the fall-out from the political upheavals in Romania, formerly a country closed to outside influences and information but now thrown open to new ideas, imagery and perceptions. It is interesting how someone like Man, part of Romania’s new generation, reconciles this radical change with a past that he knew through childhood and a desire to hold on to and treasure those things that are meaningful in his personal experience.
“It seemed particularly interesting that here was someone who was coming out of a particular tradition and using this change of circumstance in a very intelligent way, making sense of it themselves but also making images and paintings that were compelling for another audience.”
This indelible link between the past and the present is reflected in Man’s use of found objects, a technique that sparks a “surreal charge. There is an ambiguity within the imagery and the painting and likewise there is an ambiguity within the objects,” says Prince.
The original function of the objects within the sculpture is unclear. Two works displayed together, both called Untitled (2008), comprise a strange metal funnel placed on top of a wooden stall and a small boulder-like wooden form with three holes. Along with about 70 per cent of the work on show, the pieces have been made specifically for the Birmingham exhibition. The intervention of the artist with the objects is minimal and the artistic decision is the selection of the object and the spatial placement.
Motifs are repeated throughout the show and Man is drawn, in particular, to the notion of discarded gloves. A frame contains
