Igor Hosnedl / Emerald Syrup from the Orchard of Promises

In my past lives, I was a hunter and a gatherer. I would always start my everyday routine
with decorating tools, weapons and creating musical instruments for myself.
 
1) Even though you were considered as the creator of spatial objects, in this exhibition your major emphasis is on paintings. What was the impulse?

The new atelier, where for the first time in my life, is light, space and warmth, this helped me to finally start painting. An eternity of horizons was open in front of me, together with two big travels to Columbia and Australia, I understand this happy season as staying on an abandoned island, therefore the name "Two years’ vacation".
 
2) In 2004 you painted large format canvases "Roads of swifts" and "Mother Earth". In the sametime frame you also painted "Chaple of Karlin", and even before that, "Envelopes" were created, therefore in your own way you are continuing with something that was created long before?  

Of course, I was already painting in the '70s during my studies. Back then I inherited very rare pigments from prof. Slánský, which I am using presently. The first time I used them was during my exhibition in Rudolfinum, when there was a need to paint something great for "Silent Hall" and a figure of the central deity arose, which is appearing in my works in different varieties. Connection with the material was always important for me. The type of work on the ground on the non-gesso canvas, together with water diluted pigments and acrylate bonds demanded this physical contact. Even in some places on the paintings, there are my footprints.

A wall painting "Chaple of Karlin" was in somewhat a cleansing exhibition after the floods in 2002, and according to an agreement I had to turn it white. The oldest envelopes date back to 1986. The style of their decoration is connected with the style of "Third rococo" and that epoch is accumulated in my works. In the '90s I created multiple large format envelopes, which I perceived as the object/pictures having multiple-meanings and it opened an inexhaustible line packed into certain cushions, similar to guitars. This is related to my favourite non-standard formats (ovals) and adjusting large canvasses "free" without the stretcher bar.
 
3) What was most interesting thing about Australia? 

First of all never ending space and starry skies. Five weeks, every evening by the fire in the desert. Furthermore, colours and rock paintings as old as 60 000 years. This was the first time I have seen baobabs and eucalypti that were 800 years old, which existed way before the arrival of whites... breathtaking scenery. I brought back a lot of collected materials and natural clay, with which I am painting. Australians have a "story" for each god, they are mostly cautionary stories, which have helped to keep the tribes viable. It appears to me as there are various imaginary divinities, however, they were born from the transcultural backdrop. Something interesting is that the rock paintings and figures on it are very similar all around the world, but I am not the type who would study these things in much detail. On the other hand, I deliberately keep certain blindness, to be astonished, and I would recommend this to consumers. Those who ask too much will learn too much.

4) Some rusty images look a bit apocalyptic, did it have any specific impulse?

"Rusty images" are painted by some rusty mud from a forested swamp in West Czech. In fact, they are ferric nano-shells of microorganisms. I discovered this beautiful colour in the '70s, which came back to me now, to extract it artistically. Thematically, they partly follow the cycle of thermo-drawings "Landscapes from Timelessness" or the cycle of graphics "Giants", where the power of nature is personified into supernatural beings. People desire to witness a miracle or other paranormal acts, and we have this advantage that we can also paint them. Also, people are drawn to the aesthetic of natural disasters and the theatre of extinction. Towards the end however, the road took me elsewhere.
 
5) When you were in Columbia, did you try yagé -the most renowned shamanic hallucinogen?

I don’t need to check what I suspect. I don't need to meet God. I don't want to upset him. He
could stop passing me.
 
The interview led Miroslav Ambroz

Igor Hosnedl / Emerald Syrup from the Orchard of Promises

05.06.2019 - 17.08.2019

Fait Gallery, Ve Vaňkovce 2, Brno

Opening: 5. 6. 2019 at 7pm

Curator: Domenico de Chirico

“There is virtually no difference between biological and psychic formations. As a plant produces blossoms, so the psyche produces symbols.”

C. G. Jung
Psychoanalysis and Analytical Psychology

The word “syrup” is derived from the Old Arabic sharāb, and its tendency towards taking different forms indicates holiness and mystery as it is inherently typified by blending — a “magic” mixture taken in order to achieve the state of bliss. This concoction is probably emerald green, precious and holy — the Holy Grail has an impenetrable green glow resembling absinth. This life-giving substance also works as a fuel, a life-giving sap presenting the human ego with the most disquieting questions, the most radical illogical codes, i.e. the energy which is the essence of life. A plant originating in this way is not simply a plant; it represents a seed from which forests will grow: paintings, in which the internal response surfacing in all its dialectics of return is manifested. These responses are not generated by emotive internality; they are close to rituals and sense but are shrouded in hints and always in a permanent tension with interstellar phases discernible between a distant leaf and a hand, a close sound and velvet.

According to C. G. Jung, the opposites of the persona and the ego are the inhabitants of the unconscious, aka archetypes. These are defined as the archaic relics of the psyche and as such are present from birth. They are connected with the mythical subjects of the primal spirit, have their own independent energy and initiatory character. They are strongly characterized by magic and emotions so exceptional that they are present in every human being. The Self is an authority rooted in natural forces and represents the inner controlling centre, while the task of the ego is to bring this unity to the light of consciousness so that it could aim at the constant maturing and growth of the personality. The Self changes into creative energy if the ego is devoid of any purpose-oriented thoughts and calculations, and its natural drives are at the same time the carriers of energy and a very high potential of evocation. These drives do not correspond to our individual wishes and will, as the Self requires obedience. With the ego, no contracts apply. The Self represents what is typical of the human being as such, or the essence which can only manifest as a symbol. Symbols constitute a specific language, they are natural and spontaneous forms, which is why they cannot be created.

The function of the archetypes is to give rise to the Self and enable it to shake the trees in the Orchard of promises, to hurt it and thus acquire metaphorical symbols of victory, like resin from
a tree. Igor Hosnedl’s paintings rooted in drawing and employing the archetypes as automatic drawing exist even before the brush is dipped in paint.

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