artists
Jiřà Thýn
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Jiřà Thýn, by Karel CÃsaÅ™ for the catalog 2011 Jindrich Chalupecky Award Finalists, October 2011
In the course of the past few years, the works by Jiřà Thýn have undergone a remarkable shift in meaning, moving from the figural compositions of the "Best Before" cycle (2004-2005) to the formally reductive photograms of "50% Grey" (2009). However, his interest in formal solutions can be traced already in his early figural photographs, characteristic for their depersonalized rendering of the figures by means of cutting away their faces. The immobile, stage-managed bodies are employed almost as a sculptor's material, with the figures being subjected to the expression of a symbolical gesture. The connecting link between Thýn's figural photographs and his abstract compositions is represented by his photographs exploring the object character of the depicted subject by means of photographic sequences. That is the case with his series "4 Corners of the Hilton Hotel" (2007-2008) and "Compositions No. 17 and 27" (2007). Despite the fact that the images depict material objects, by means of exhaustive photographic description of the building and the still life, Thýn achieved completely abstract qualities.
What distinguishes the photographs and photograms of the "50% Grey" cycle from the previous works is not their abstract quality but rather their interest in the self-reflective development of their own means of expression. In these works, the photographic medium turns away from the outside reality, returning to its formal features, similarly to the period of constructivist photography in the early 20th century. Like his predecessors, Jiřà Thýn, too, deals with photography without the camera in these works. Once installed, the black-and-white photograms are contrasted with the glass matrices rendered in full colour, which have been used during the realization of the photograms. By making the process of their creation visible, the artist destabilizes the boundary between the process and the final artwork. This is also evident with the photographs from the series. Although the photographs depict an ordinary view out of the window or a torso of a girl's body, their renderingin the form of a strip test, segmenting the image into various strips according to the selected tonality, ranks them to the formal language of geometric abstraction. However, unlike his predecessors, who have sought artistic qualities in the formal qualities of photography, Thýn employs the very same qualities to prove that the indexical quality of photography does not necessarily result in its fidelity. Rather than the ontology of the medium, it is the pragmatic aspect that determines this fidelity; the way photography is employed with respect to the discursive and social conditions.
On one hand, this discovery allowed Jiřà Thýn to explore the role of photography in various periods of art history; on the other hand, it enabled him to considerably extend the scale of media he employs when dealing with photography. Both of these tendencies have been developed most fully in his project "Archetypes, Space, Abstraction" (2011). In the multiple exposition of the sculpture by Otto Gutfreund, Thýn develops the principles of aesthetic cubism; in another image, he makes drawings by light on an enlarged reconstruction of a composition by Katarzyna Kobro by means of colour filters. In his video Philips (2010), he deals with the theme of the photographic procedure. In fact, the round shape reminiscent of his photograms represents a mere reflection of the lamp on the surface of the developer. In this way, Jiřà Thýn shows that as a subject of theoretical reflection, photography by far transcends the very photographic medium.
Abstraction as Reality, by Marketa Stara for Artforum, September 2011
Archetypes, Space and Abstraction is the title and subject of the latest exhibition by Czech artist Jiřà Thýn. Similarly to a number of contemporary artists who in the time of crisis choose to further the fruitful era of modernity, also Thýn in his recent photographic series conceives a dialogue with the 20th century Avant-Garde. His interest is focused predominantly on the work of Czech cubist sculptor Otto Gutfreund whose works Thýn "sets into motion" through the medium of photography.
It would be wrong to understand the approach of Jiřà Thýn as a mere gesture of appropriation or manipulation, which comes to mind when encountering Thýn's modified version of Katarzyna Kobros constructivist sculpture Space Composition 2 (2011) included in the show, as his strategy results in a multilayered comprehensive meaning. The use of analogue film, distinctive for Thýn's work, questions on the one hand the process of documenting an already existing art work and consequences of this process, while on the other hand it aspires to test and overcome the confines laid out by the photographic medium as such. Through a complex play with light, the artist unveils what could be perceived as a fourth dimension: it creates an illusion of movement in the otherwise static medium.
On a formal level, Thýn's photographs from the Gutfreund series numbered 1-5 and based among other on Otto Gutfreund's sculptures Seated Woman (1916), Don Quijote (1911-1912) or Cellist (1912-1913), "perform" the sculptural quality of its original and thus could be easily reduced to a sheer attempt to initiate a dialectic relationship between the present and the past. The insertion of other mostly photographic works in the show which combine or layer images from real life with abstract geometric forms achieved through experimentation in the dark room (multi-exposure, experimentations with developing liquid) and which are unobtrusively installed in-between the Gutfreund's series, however points to a different way of thinking as well as to various other conceptual insights of the works and the exhibition as a whole.
Thýn's current engagement with the Avant-Garde can be understood as a result of gradual reduction in form that has been present in his recent works and is closely associated with limits of photography and its inability to capture reality as it is. A fitting example of this tendency is Thýn's photograph of cuboid-like forms (Untitled, 2011), achieved by drawing with light. Although abstract, Thýn's experimental work with analogue film on many levels offers a more true depiction of reality. This true image of reality is not rooted in the photographic depiction of the reality but in the production process that precedes it. Moreover, Thýn's formal engagement with the Avant-Garde and abstraction achieved through his employment of obsolete photographic techniques can be understood as a unique commentary on our present day condition, where the emergence of new technologies and the dynamics of our society changes through-out the past decades have caused our detachment from reality prompting further abstraction.
Archetypes, Space, Abstraction is not an attempt to extract moments from history, appropriate the already appropriated and thus view the past through the prism of the present, but more of an attempt to discover new and effective strategies how to capture a true image of our present day reality.
Less Is More, by Anna Maximova, for Atelier, No. 11, 2009, pg. 4
Jiřà Thýn (1977), an artist belonging to the youngest generation on the contemporary art scene, presents his latest work in
the exhibition entitled Less, where he opens a game made up of photographs, a neon sign on the wall and a billboard made of mirrored letters and iron
construction mounted on concrete pedestals.
The brief title of the show and a neon sign opening it that spells out NENI (NOT) can bring about an impression that what is happening here is more about
feelings, the possibility of free association and intuition. After all, Thýn's work, in general, is based on a subjective reflection of everyday life and on working
with symbols that are offered for decoding, as is also the case in this exhibition.
The mirror billboard is the most eye-catching part of the exhibition. The mirror letters that spell out the phrase 'Fall of The West - Lost Touch With The East',
following the words 'Less' and 'Not', brings about another ambiguous - if not negative - feeling. Any possible interpretation leads us to the conclusion that in a
situation like ours, all that was firm and fixed is lost, and we fluster in a labyrinth with no escape.
The series of photographs entitled So Sad in These Luxurious Times makes up another part of the exhibition. One of the photographs is of a Baroque church
interior, which has then been 'improved' by a symmetrical print - a colorful butterfly created by a well-known children's technique of squeezing paint out onto a
paper (in this case on a photograph), folding it in half and pressing the halves against each other. This intervention could be a metaphor for the need to restore
Christian ethics, or the functionality of church institutions. A photograph of a naked girl lying down on a dirty carpet and watching TV postulates today's
confusion in values in a most succinct way. Another symptomatic view is in the large scale black and white photograph of a shop window full of crystal glass
chandeliers and other glittery goods that, at first glance, looks luxurious and dazzling. However, often not all that glitters is gold, and even upscale crystal is
Made in China. The photograph entitled This is Tomorrow, in which the space is illusively built out of reflections intersected by a white circle in the center, asks
a visionary question about what comes next. The exhibition ends with an image of an ordinary chair against which leans a square of plexiglass with the text
'From now everything will be beautiful'.
Is it only an irony, mocking all different new age spiritual movements, or is it saying that what we keep repeating eventually becomes true, or rather is it an
expression of real hope?
Be it any of those, Jiřà Thýn's reflection on the actual state of our society, really fits the 'mood' of our times. Can we ever sufficiently realize that less is in fact
more?
Born 1977 in Prague, Czech Republic, Thýn is a member of the newest generation of active young contemporary artists in Prague. He graduated from the photography studio under Pavel Stecha at the Academy of Applied Arts in 2006, after also spendng one year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (studio of Vladimir Skrepl and Jiri Kovanda) and the UIAH in Helsinki. He is a member of the artist group Ladvi (with Jan Haubelt and Adela Svobodova), established in 2005, that engages in interactions in public space of a socially beneficial nature and at a local community level.
Jiřà Thýn has had solo exhibitions at the Josef Sudek Gallery (2006), the Atrium at the Moravian Gallery in Brno (2010), Prague City Gallery at the Old Town Hall (2010), G99 Gallery at DUMB: Brno House of Arts (2011), and in 2012 will have a solo exhibition at the House of Arts in Ceske Budejovice curated by Michal Kolecek. He has participated in group exhibitions at the Well Gallery London, Casino Luxembourg, Rudolfinum, MoCP in Chicago, Prague City Gallery, the Prague Biennale, Rudolfinum, Zlin New Salon. Thyn is a finalist for the 2011 Chalupecky Award for Young Artists in the Czech Republic, where he was received the audiance award for the best presentation at the Dox Center for Contemporary Art in Prague. He also also recieved the Best Exhibition of the Year Award for his 2011 exhibition Archteypes, Space, Abstraction at the Prague City Gallery at the Old Town Hall, selected by the jury of young artists and curators from this year's Vaclav Stratil Award. Jiri Thyn is the recipient of stipends for his work from the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Visegrad Fund to attend artist residency programs in Mexico City, Bern, and New York City.