Srdjan Segan Headbones Commentary

The Drawers - Srdjan Segan Commentary written by Julie Oakes

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It is such a long expanse - a magnificent stretch of paper like a royal welcome into drawing. The figures appear light for they are made of paper. They can be suspended by tape despite the monolithic proportions.

There will always be a part of these figures that is beyond focus so that the comparison of the sublime to a giant where human capacities cannot perceive his head is apt. Srdjan Segan's monochromatic giants require a physical exertion on the part of the viewer in order to comprehend them. A focused reading of the figures from any one point is impossible. Standing at the feet, the head will constantly be a blur. The body of the viewer must enter into the process of realization. It is necessary to move around or along these pieces, to walk the length of them, or if they are hung from the ceiling, to circle around their backs as if they were a piece of sculpture. Since Srdjan Segan is also a sculptor; it is not by accident that the roundness of perception has been acknowledged.

In the smaller works, the scale works similarly. The lankiness of the figure, slung like a bungee cord or a taut bow, because it has become so long also expands the imagined space that the paper represents. Srdjan creates a room for the preposterous elongations.

These figures are not comfortable. Vises and screws confine like medieval instruments of torture. The belly spills outside of the skin. The man or woman rumbles with the pain of sentience. It is an oppressive contrast to the thrill of the size. Monuments usually celebrate the grandeur of man not the amplification of man's failings. But that which is visceral and potentially unpalatable, having grown, becomes acceptable, even admirable. It is impossible to be ambivalent as the visuals physically project into space to connect.

A master of illusions to the sublime, Srdjan Segan shares his Eastern European roots. Within these bold black and white pieces, there exists a testimony to the enduring struggles of mankind, an affirmation of monumentality and an exhibition of a natural draftsmanship.