Jiri Kovanda

Untitled

Jirí Kovanda’s Untitled (1992) responds to the same principles of an economy of means as the artist’s actions and installations: three empty cardboard boxes which have contained photographic film are piled one on top of the other. Nevertheless, there is harmony in the assembly of forms, writing, colors, proportions; an aesthetic construction is carried by this contemporary still life. This work charts the passing of time: the cardboard yellows, the film becomes obsolete in the digital age. In a meta-artistic dimension, this sculpture could be a manifesto for Kovanda’s work. His actions and installations have a particular link to the photographic medium: they can only exist for the contemporary spectator and as an artwork, through the records and documentation. The sculpture seems to contain potential artworks in gestation in the bottom of the box, like a mysterious photographic chamber, invisible to the eye.