Army without the General

“What I am trying to communicate through sculpture, installation and film are questions about the way human psyches work, how they are affected by history and by an experience of life. I’m interested in the way history defines psychic tendencies, and the intersection of inner and outer narratives. The world I’m reconstructing in my practice exists in the conflict between one’s inner and outer world, in the conflict between past and present.”

Vajiko Chachkhiani’s 'Army without the General' consists of an enormous tree stump, embedded within a pile of excavated earth including rocks, soil and branches, around which are situated numerous tombstones baring portraits of the unknown deceased. We are dwarfed by this unknown or lost landscape as if it has been removed or stolen from a far-away place and dumped for our contemplation and confusion. Chachkhiani’s work presents us with a melancholic situation, asking us to consider the larger historic and social forces at play at the core of our identities and sense of selves.