Yesterday I slept in my cocoon, absorbing the strength and meanings of the outer world. I froze, waiting for my card to be laid on the table. Le Pendu — the Hanged Man. In Tarot, it is the sacrifice of the present for the sake of a goal in the future. The triumph of the spiritual principle. Contemplation, the accretion of resonating vibrations.
Upon waking, I created a painting, giving it the only thing I have — myself. The Hanged Man. This is the artist’s ultimate act. Time, relationships, money, competing ambitions, or, finally, life itself. I take an imprint of the universe available to me, pulling it out of myself and replacing it with an external form. I close the circle without strength. In that universe, I have died.
Tomorrow this painting will be hung in a hall. Through it, the viewer will fill me with their attention — whether marked by indifference, sympathy, or hostility. And I will be filled. A vampire. My intention is realized only now, beginning the accumulation of strength for a new step in a new world. Rebirth.
Should one fear an indifferent audience, if only — and only — the presence of a viewer creates the paradigm in which this painting can exist at all? Everything before that is self-indulgence. Everything after is a trinity: the artist, the work, and the viewer who, pulling the rope of public opinion, hoists the hanged man into public view. He is left only to recognize his purpose and, giving part of himself to the audience, kick the stool out from under his own feet — becoming a magnet that draws attention, and once filled, to explode in that Heisenbergian frenzy of mutually influencing parameters, altering that which will alter them forever.
Le Pendu
photos by Dmitrijs Bulkins
Le Pendu (The Hangman) - performative trilogy
On May the 7th, 2015 in Skatuve theater the first act of a trilogy called "Le Pendu"- The Hangman was staged. This performance was the beginning of my exploration of interactions between the author, its creation and the audience. The metaphor to be created on the stage becomes a reality, provoking the audience into the real emotional exchange with the artist, and what suddenly appears to be the master plan of the whole performance.
On May the 20th, 2017 the book of the same name was published and presented. The book explores the moment of interaction with the viewer, contraposing the artistic process of self-acknowledgment and the articulated reaction of an audience.
The book can be previewed here.
On May the 31st, 2019 the final part of the trilogy was performed in an undisclosed location without any witnesses. And while each part represents the full cycle of an artistic synergy between the author, the art and the audience, every part on its own accentuates on certain stage of this interaction using its own media:
The performance, as the first act, is focused on the artist (the hanging stage).
The book, as the second act, is accentuated on the audience feedback (the vampire stage).
And the third part is dedicated to the meditation (the Le Pendu stage), thus completing the cycle.
photos by Šarlote Vojevodska