The Prague Post
November 22nd, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Hotel Prague Centre

Home » Archives » Night & Day

In the eye of the beholder

A conceptual project reconsiders the beauty of machinery
Gallery Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
November 7th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Prompted by an Eco essay, Skála finds undiscovered aesthetics in amateur photos of surplus factory equipment.
Jiří Skála: Two Families of Objects

at Hunt Kastner Artworks Ends Nov. 30.

Jiří Skála’s exhibition “Two Families of Objects” at Hunt Kastner Artworks was inspired by a short text by Umberto Eco — and equally, if not more so, by the artist’s family.
In his collection of essays Travels in Hyper Reality, Eco’s piece “Two Families of Objects” distinguishes between “beautiful” objects  —  those which are desired and within most people’s reach, such as lounge chairs, lamps or even motor boats — and “ugly” objects, those which almost no one has a desire to own. The category of “ugly” objects most often encompasses machines such as cranes, cement mixers and hydraulic presses — dirty, noisy and unwanted because they are associated with work, and even worse, with manual labor.
Eco asserts that the “ugly” objects are actually “very beautiful — more so than the first,” but most people just don’t realize it. This is the starting point for Skála’s “Two Families of Objects.”
The exhibition consists of 12 photographs of machines taken in their place of use, such as a garage or workshop. The photos were snapped by the owners of the machines, not by Skála, and so the images vary from crude or boring to unintentionally poetic. There is also one photograph — the only one taken by Skála — of the text by Eco (in Czech translation) that inspired the project.
The other photographs are labeled with text detailing the ownership and history of each machine. For instance: “Oto Huřťák had been employed as a locksmith at Škoda Klatovy from the early 1970s until 2005. In 2000, he purchased a table drill from the factory where he had worked for close to 35 years.”
All of the industrial machines in the exhibit, including tool grinders, circular saw sharpeners, table drills and universal lathes, were purchased from the Škoda factory in Klatovy, and all of the buyers were longtime employees of the factory. The machines were purchased upon the factory’s demise, at a sort of clearance sale for the end of an era.
From Skála’s point of view, the machines were bought because they were appreciated for their sheer beauty. Even though they are functional, there is an aesthetic quality in these standard factory-green machines that perhaps only their operators can appreciate.
Two of the owners happen to be the artist’s retired parents. It was their initial co-purchase of a universal lathe that sparked the concept for the project.
It is significant that the machines were not cleaned up for photographs; instead, they are shown leaking oil, or covered in dust or sawdust, with the work spaces around them generally a mess. As a result, the viewer can almost smell the oil, sweat and dust.
Each machine owner is listed in this exhibit as a photographer, and each machine “contributes” to the exhibit simply by continuing to function after so many years of operation. In that respect, “Two Families of Objects” is truly a group show, in more ways than one.
It is a show by a group of former factory workers, one-time colleagues, who were asked to become photographers for this project. It is a show about a group of machines, all originally from the same factory and formerly engaged in the group activity of production.
In coordinating this group effort, Skála is acting more in the role of curator, or director of operations. It is a job well done. Concept accomplished.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (7/11/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Provokator
Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.