Svetlana and Igor Kopystiansky. SoHo. New York 1990
Installation view: Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky. Phyllis Kind Gallery, NYC, 1990
“The basis of my works from the series “text-objects” is a literary text put onto canvas. For me the text has two aspects: firstly it is a reality (written words are part of the real world around us), and secondly the text delivers information about the reality outside it. In my works I use many different texts. I turn to literature: novels, stories, classical dramas. In one work, several works from various authors may be combined: the works are not always given completely and may be broken off at the edge of the canvas or be used fragmentarily.
I work directly with the material and exploit its specific physical characteristics: the elasticity of the weave makes it possible to shape it at will, and its thinness and flexibility let it bee torn into pieces of various sizes. I produce objects on which simple geometrical forms or landscapes are delineated or objects whose material is freely arranged in various large folds. In this way the original form of the text is changed, and the new form gives rise to a new sequence of letters and signs. The visual form takes precedence over the text, and the attention of the viewer springs from the drawing to the text, which, however, can no longer bee read simply, since the words disintegrate and then come together in unbelievable constructions. A game arises with the text-reality and the words, or rather with the visual form of the words (as distinct from their semantic and phonetic aspects).
I have arranged happenings, where the text-objects have been read out and tape-recordings made. Finally the text was printed, to document the happening.
In the series of works, where the texts and the depictions of landscapes interact, this series follows the intention of having two realities and two illusions appear together: the one of the picture with its physical reality and the illusion of the depiction, and the one of the text with the visual reality of its form and with the worlds which are described in it.”
Svetlana Kopystiansky, 1988.
Svetlana and Igor Kopystiansky. SoHo. New York 1990
Installation view: Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky. Phyllis Kind Gallery, NYC, 1990
“The basis of my works from the series “text-objects” is a literary text put onto canvas. For me the text has two aspects: firstly it is a reality (written words are part of the real world around us), and secondly the text delivers information about the reality outside it. In my works I use many different texts. I turn to literature: novels, stories, classical dramas. In one work, several works from various authors may be combined: the works are not always given completely and may be broken off at the edge of the canvas or be used fragmentarily.
I work directly with the material and exploit its specific physical characteristics: the elasticity of the weave makes it possible to shape it at will, and its thinness and flexibility let it bee torn into pieces of various sizes. I produce objects on which simple geometrical forms or landscapes are delineated or objects whose material is freely arranged in various large folds. In this way the original form of the text is changed, and the new form gives rise to a new sequence of letters and signs. The visual form takes precedence over the text, and the attention of the viewer springs from the drawing to the text, which, however, can no longer bee read simply, since the words disintegrate and then come together in unbelievable constructions. A game arises with the text-reality and the words, or rather with the visual form of the words (as distinct from their semantic and phonetic aspects).
I have arranged happenings, where the text-objects have been read out and tape-recordings made. Finally the text was printed, to document the happening.
In the series of works, where the texts and the depictions of landscapes interact, this series follows the intention of having two realities and two illusions appear together: the one of the picture with its physical reality and the illusion of the depiction, and the one of the text with the visual reality of its form and with the worlds which are described in it.”
Svetlana Kopystiansky, 1988.