Nonsense of > Progress < in Modern Psychofooling (2002) by Lubo KristekResearch Institute of Communication in Art
Lubo Kristek examines thresholds and critical points in his artworks. The threshold of the bearable is represented by a red-and-white dot-and-dash line.
The background of his collage Tax Landscape Surée consists of the official documents of the Mrs. Bißle‘s bankruptcy who lived in the house 71 years before Kristek. He found them during reconstruction between the boards of the dropped ceiling.
What is still bearable?
Kristek ponders on existential pressure and its bearability for an individual. He identifies himself with Mrs. Bißle’s story, putting his hair and miniportrait into the collage.
Tax Landscape Surée (1997) by Lubo KristekResearch Institute of Communication in Art
Documents
Also historical evidence, old Reich’s notes, can be found in the artwork. Kristek calls his collages involving significant papers (official, medical, etc.) the ‘documents’.
Psychofooling
In 2002, Lubo Kristek received a leaflet promoting a course on selling methods in his letter box. One of the themes was how to learn to ‘influence problematic clients’.
Nonsense of > Progress < in Modern Psychofooling (2002) by Lubo KristekResearch Institute of Communication in Art
Kristek couldn’t resist such a document and created the collage Nonsense of > Progress < in Modern Psychofooling.
In his collages, he often pastes his sketches on tracing paper (he inherited kilometres of it from his father, an architect). The sketch of his oil painting This Is a Foreign World for Me marks the focal point of the collage.
He also used a Czech note that was valid at that time from which three crosses with a crucified nymph grow.
Nickel Silver Lady in Hat Nickel Silver Lady in Hat (2019) by Lubo KristekResearch Institute of Communication in Art
In Kristek’s assemblage Nickel Silver Lady in Hat, the threshold of the bearable represents a limit, beyond which a society is heading towards an irreversible demise.
Nickel Silver Lady in HatResearch Institute of Communication in Art
The plow symbolizes the beginning of agricultural age. Religion is an important attribute that is referred to by the Bible and the rosary.
The lady's fate is inextricably linked with nickel silver, which spirals around her bones.
Threshold of the bearable passes through the plow towards the female figure, of which only a skeleton remained. It ends in blood from the last period, which symbolizes total exhaustion.
