Narrative?
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.
Copyright © 2006, Headbones Gallery, The Drawers
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