New York cones and coneys

A small exhibition by Petr Nikl at Galerie Havelka features more than 30 new drawings by this multifaceted Czech artist. Nikl is best known to the wider public for his performances and interactive exhibitions of uniquely crafted instruments and sound and light sculptures intended for all-ages audiences. One such project, "Play," opens in November at the Mánes exhibition hall.

At Galerie Havelka, Nikl presents the simplified side of his work. Collectively titled "Drawings from the New World," the three open-ended series of drawings shown here were inspired by sights in New York City, where Nikl recently began living when his wife took a job there. Like the famous Czech composer Antonín Dvořák in the 19th century, Nikl has found great inspiration in the Big Apple.

Hung on one wall are 18 drawings from two of the cycles, "Skyscraper Spires" and "Others." "Skyscraper Spires" re-imagines tops for high-rise buildings. The pinnacle of the famous Chrysler Building is visible from Nikl's 15th-floor apartment, and to the artist it seemed an outcast among the flat roofs of most Manhattan skyscrapers. Nikl's designs are fantastical variations on this building's top, and are anti-functionalist to the core. For Nikl, the Manhattan skyline has much lost potential.

Some of the spires are conical, while more rounded or octagonal variations look like mushrooms, blooming plants, UFOs, and even pre-Columbian Olmec stone heads. As idealized visions of New York's famous skyline, some of Nikl's spires resemble the ancient architecture of Angkor Wat and Tenochtitlan, albeit with a futuristic twist. This big-city ornamentation offers a whole new landscape of possibilities.

Interspersed with the spires are exotic heads from Nikl's "Others" series. One shows a woman with a cone-shaped spiral on her head, a twisting seashell of a hairdo. Another woman has two cones protruding out of her head like rockets. There is a man with a flowing, upward-reaching beard merging with the hair on his head, which looks like wild grass. One woman has a head like plates lined up vertically behind her face.

On the wall opposite "Skyscraper Spires" and "Others" are drawings from the series "Rabbits From Coney Island" - surrealist variations on the animal that in Nikl's hands looks more like a duck, dog, cat and even at times an insect. The rabbits were inspired by Nikl's visit to Coney Island in Brooklyn. Native Americans called this seaside location namioche, "the land without shadows," while Dutch and English settlers referred to it as Coney Island, meaning "rabbit island." Nikl's "Rabbits From Coney Island" plays on this historical connection.

Nikl's rabbits have two, three or four ears, like propellers or fan blades. Some of the rabbits are drawn in contorted positions, while others seem to be in motion or in devious disguise. One looks ready to passionately mount another, and those in shadows have a hint of menace in their beady little eyes. These are rabbits with attitude.

Nikl's rabbits represent innocence. The once-populous furry inhabitants of Coney Island fell victim to uncontrolled hunting and urban development. In Nikl's series, they are part of New York's history, looking to the present in comical, sculptural poses. They may also represent ghosts or spirits of the land, remnants of the lost New World.

Dvořák was captivated not just by the spirits of America, but particularly by the spirituals and native folk music he found there. His most famous symphony, "From the New World," composed in 1893, pays deep tribute to his experiences in New York and in Spillville, Iowa. In this context, comparing Nikl's stay in New York City with Dvořák's is a stretch. After all, Nikl's exhibitions and performances have already brought him to Japan, Brazil, California and Malaysia, among other places.

"Drawings From the New World," curated by Radek Wohlmuth, also includes two short poems by Nikl, displayed on a narrow surface that bridges the two walls holding his drawings. The poem "Coney Island," which also appears in the exhibition's handsome catalog, is an ode to the lost world of the "island of rabbits" and ends with the final stanza, "The cyclone screeches and howls,/ across the Atlantic's metal walls,/ the sand bristles with refuse,/ you can't escape its thrall ?"

Nikl's interpretations of Manhattan and Coney Island's history ultimately reveal extermination and eventual rebirth. The show is certainly worth seeking out.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at
features@praguepost.com