GLASS, GAS AND ELECTRICITY

sariev gallery

EXHIBITION / 21 DECEMBER 2020 – 2 FEBRUARY 2021 / SARIEV, PLOVDIV / RADA BOUKOVA / MARIANA VASSILEVA / VENTSISLAV ZANKOV / PRAVDOLIUB IVANOV / VIKENTI KOMITSKI / STEFAN NIKOLAEV / KALIN SERAPIONOV / DIMITAR SOLAKOV / KAMEN STOYANOV / SAMUIL STOYANOV / KRASSIMIR TERZIEV

Ventsislav Zankov, Untitled, 2020, neon, 300х180х15 cm, 3+1AP, Inquiry  / Запитване

I had mentioned that the work is most likely a modern reference to Moses and the Burning Bush, yet in this case there is no one to speak or answer – there is only the buzzing of the transformers. The artwork is untitled and was part of my solo exhibition Before me (2020) in Raiko Alexiev Gallery, Sofia.

The exhibition presented some of my large-format paintings and sculptures made of cast iron. They constitute a visual symbiosis of two themes, two crises intertwined in human behavior – ecological and social, the latter of which was brought about by the coronavirus pandemic – that evolved into an existential crisis and a question about the human.

The tree as a central motif can be understood as a metaphor of psychic domains and visions of loneliness and isolation in a certain natural context. 

For example, the trees represented in large-format paintings are not part of a forest, but rather single entities, barren crowns, strenuously plunged into a gloomy sky. Nature morte / Still life. Next to them, placed outside the context and the framework, stands a technological neon tree that glows in blood red and resembles a system of blood vessels. The micro becomes macro and deepens the anxiety.

Ventsislav Zankov

Untitled, 2020 (detail) from Sariev Gallery on Vimeo.