Alice Nikitinová
Hranice mezi abstrakcí a zobrazující reprezantací je někdy mimořádně tenká, může ale nabízet široké pole pro výtvarnou práci. V tomto terénu se svérázným způsobem pohybuje i Alice Nikitinová (nar. 1979). Byť se často zdůrazňuje, že umělkyně vychází z odkazu avantgardy a sama Nikitinová, která šest let studovala na pražské Akademii u Jiřího Sopka, otevřeně přiznává svou zálibu v Malevičovi, její tvorba nezapře ani vliv pop-artu, pomalířské abstrakce v duchu Ellswortha Kellyho nebo minimalismu. Nikitinovou ale nikdy nepřestal zajímat viditelný svět kolem nás, jen se na něj dívá svým vlastním způsobem. Zajímá ji především mobiliář města – jeho servisní část jako popelnice, poštovní schránky, uklízeči a metaři, a také komunikace – dopravní značky, dráty trolejí apod. A pak nejrůznější cedule nebo plakátovací plochy. To je příznačné, protože ve výsledku jsou i její obrazy na první pohled „signální“ (čemuž odpovídá i čistá barevnost ve velkých plochách s minimem valérů) – jako znamení, která mají být vnímána v celku a v jeden okamžik. Často až na druhý pohled rozeznáváme věc v její lapidárnosti a současně realističnosti – jako třeba banánovou krabici zredukovanou na typické otvory.
Některé motivy se už staly určitými autorčinými emblémy – holinky, koště, žebřík nebo rukavice ad. – nejprve se objevovaly na obrazech s postavami, ale časem se osamostatnily. Věc-znak tedy můžeme v tvorbě Alice Nikitinové nahlížet jako pevně spojenou s lidskou činností, byť se přítomnost člověka z obrazů vytratila. I přes zdánlivou formální strohost (nebo naopak velkorysost) tak nejde jen o experimenty s barvou, tvarem a percepcí diváka, ale i o soustředěné ohledávání životního prostoru, který nás vlastně spoluutváří.
Tereza Jindrová
- I did my high school studies in Ukraine and it was very conservative school,00:00:04.325
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- and when I got to Prague, everything that took place00:00:15.653
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- at the Academy (of Fine Arts) seemed progressive and radical to me.00:00:20.187
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- I spent those six years in prof. Sopko's painting studio00:00:28.058
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- and most of the time00:00:32.356
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- was taken up by blundering and searching.00:00:36.958
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- The year after school was a strange period of time,00:00:43.202
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- when one reevaluates everything again.00:00:49.103
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- Back then, I was doing kind of an anti-painting,00:00:53.579
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- I call it trash period,00:00:57.920
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- they were immensely half-witted paintings.00:01:02.281
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- It was a protest of sorts against myself00:01:06.612
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- and against the seriousness of one's previous approach.00:01:10.852
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- In a way it was very liberating,00:01:19.488
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- suddenly the fear whether it is good enough disappeared00:01:23.836
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- and there started to function00:01:30.867
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- certain playfulness and irony.00:01:35.073
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- For me this is a significant series in some way,00:01:44.340
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- it draws from pure observation and my keen interest in Malevich00:01:52.831
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- at that time00:01:57.209
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- and the paintings are quotations of sorts.00:02:00.729
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- It's a similar format and composition,00:02:04.903
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- but the other attributes are actually contemporary.00:02:11.170
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- I wouldn't want the paintings00:02:28.851
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- to be seen as some sweeping social commentary.00:02:33.165
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- Those topics weren't in any way actual back then.00:02:39.823
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- It was rather a marginalized topic.00:02:48.383
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- But I believe there should be present some attitude,00:02:54.911
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- or at least I would like it to be so,00:02:59.240
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- that it could be felt, and not just perceived00:03:03.728
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- as some simple set of meanings or as too straightforward.00:03:08.169
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- I have actually slowly abandoned the figural approach;00:03:20.581
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- there remained only objects from similar environments,00:03:24.838
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- like, utilitarian, mundane things.00:03:29.233
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- And at the same time it is a visual kind of interest,00:03:36.581
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- it speaks to me every time I see it,00:03:40.824
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- but it's also an endeavor to get rid of the elitist pose00:03:45.113
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- of the art in general, a step towards margins,00:03:49.423
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- closer to an ordinary life.00:03:53.861
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- This comes from the Florenc central bus station,00:04:04.948
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- where there are these two guys who are usually standing there00:04:09.306
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- the whole day and observing and I liked the moment00:04:13.677
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- where we don't see the bus station,00:04:18.019
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- but the information is provided by the writing on vests,00:04:22.234
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- so notwithstanding the abstract quality it's somehow very descriptive.00:04:26.619
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- Compressor.00:04:31.956
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- I like it when the image poses as an abstraction,00:04:39.103
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- but if there is some real object...00:04:43.587
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- the abstraction is something very serious;00:04:50.766
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- some of it has even sacral effect00:04:58.240
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- and I like it when this seriousness00:05:02.608
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- can be toppled or disturbed somehow by a mundane object.00:05:06.949
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- In 2008-2009 I did an internship in Amsterdam00:05:21.487
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- and my first impression was00:05:26.980
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- that it's such a perfect clean postcard city,00:05:31.363
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- and I didn't feel any attachment to it.00:05:38.224
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- It was hard for me to find any inspiration there00:05:42.466
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- and this is, again, returning to mundane,00:05:49.543
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- utilitarian objects, and at the same time00:05:53.673
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- I liked the fact that dumpsters in Amsterdam have an address number.00:05:57.953
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- Therefore the play in question00:06:03.073
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- is similar to the Florenc dispatching guys, that even though it is very abstract00:06:07.412
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- it still has these exact numbers00:06:11.877
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- pointing to a specific place.00:06:16.073
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- This is a car quite peculiar to Netherlands, it is called Canta00:06:44.153
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- and it's a funny small electric car,00:06:50.461
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- used mostly by handicapped people and seniors.00:06:58.194
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- It's very typical for Netherlands,00:07:05.331
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- so I think it's a bit harder here00:07:09.660
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- for there isn't that immediate moment of recognition,00:07:16.241
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- like with the multicar. What I liked about it00:07:20.744
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- was that the car already looked like taken from some comic book,00:07:24.940
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- so I didn't have to simplify it too much00:07:30.799
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- - it does look approximately like this. I approached the car in the street00:07:35.022
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- and I compared it roughly with my own height.00:07:39.337
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- I chose a square format of that exact size00:07:43.790
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- and squeezed the car inside in its life size.00:07:49.477
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- Of course the perspective is somewhat impossible;00:07:53.823
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- one would have to lie down or so to see all the wheels lined up like that.00:07:58.375
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- But that's more like a symbolic handling of space.00:08:07.208
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- While staying in Netherlands I started once again to deal00:08:18.349
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- with formal aspects, like proportions, balance,00:08:22.840
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- various colour relations,00:08:27.202
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- that is some fundamental issues of painting,00:08:33.107
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- rediscovering for my own needs, though this time00:08:37.417
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- from a different point of view.00:08:41.604
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- I enjoyed very much things that are related somehow to painting,00:08:50.490
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- or that bear some announcement,00:08:54.749
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- though in the painting we end up seeing only the shape.00:09:02.671
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- The announcement is only in the title.00:09:06.860
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- This is are the backrests; it is actually right here,00:09:17.217
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- the source of inspiration.00:09:21.559
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- Funny thing is that it was really everything about it00:09:29.808
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- that took my interest, including screws,00:09:34.065
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- including slots of their heads each of them oriented differently,00:09:38.556
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- and when I look at it, the eye tends to wander,00:09:42.908
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- that it's almost a phased movement.00:09:47.066
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- Then there are other versions,00:09:51.335
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- this here is a backrest without screws,00:09:55.494
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- and here there are only the screws00:09:59.738
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- with the slots in the middle.00:10:04.028
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- Then I have realized that having this tendency to paint single object00:10:12.108
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- in the center of canvas00:10:16.559
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- is related as well with desire00:10:20.745
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- to make things in the simplest, most straightforward way.00:10:25.002
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- I wanted to try and make the objects,00:10:29.215
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- that is, not to paint them, but to fabricate them.00:10:33.541
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- This is a box with a shape corresponding with...00:10:43.671
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- it reminds me of a Soviet letter box,00:10:47.910
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- but in this case a letter can be inserted but not taken out.00:10:52.196
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- It's an absurd, non-functional object.00:10:57.882
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- This is a series of first pages of books,00:11:16.433
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- mostly monographs of some artists,00:11:22.696
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- and it stems as well from an observation.00:11:28.383
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- But I also liked the moment00:11:32.704
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- of uncoupling the meaning of the thing and its cover,00:11:37.383
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- thus once again, one doesn't know what book is that,00:11:43.925
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- it's only the painting's title that informs us about the book's name.00:11:48.267
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- It's just a play of forms that is being created there,00:11:52.228
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- with shapes appearing there and communicating among themselves.00:11:56.691
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- It also hints at painter's perception of world00:12:02.900
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- - I catch myself sometimes perceiving things around me00:12:07.244
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- regardless of their meaning, I focus more on their shape00:12:14.893
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- than on their content.00:12:19.050
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- This is a torn down poster,00:12:23.299
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- an attempt at representing nothing, absence or gap.00:12:27.520
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- And I liked as well the play of geometry:00:12:33.695
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- the corners keep disconcerting you,00:12:37.988
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- the painting looks like it's hanging wryly00:12:42.021
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- since the eye tends to "tidy" the corners up.00:12:46.408
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- These photographs serve as a kind of notes.00:13:13.688
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- It's done mostly by a small camera;00:13:22.802
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- it has no quality, no usable resolution.00:13:27.057
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- What counts is rather a fast reaction00:13:31.482
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- when one sees something he likes.00:13:35.921
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- And it's mostly objects having something absurd about them,00:13:40.265
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- sometimes they even remind pieces of art,00:13:44.691
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- however they are meant to be functional in some way.00:13:48.939
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- It's more like collecting than a serious work.00:13:57.441
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- Only rarely does it happen00:14:09.911
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- that I have an exact idea of what I would like to do.00:14:14.278
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- The whole process is actually about searching00:14:18.732
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- of what I can do,00:14:23.206
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- and only later one does find what it was all about.00:14:27.190