2024-04-25
Neon, originally used for advertising purposes, has infiltrated the art world in many forms and guises. Sarkis, one of the classics of the 20th and 21st centuries, uses its mesmerizing yet aggressive light to bring back the memory of the excluded, the overlooked, the forgotten. Angel's Rainbow, the artist's solo exhibition, will be held at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.
Observing the exhibition space, which resembles a traditional white-cube with a massive, pulsating rainbow and people taking photos in front of it, one might assume that we are dealing with some kind of tourist object. In fact, it is a modern monument created in honour of a spontaneous phenomenon, nature itself. "The rainbow should be treated as a miracle. Art is always about new beginnings; there are certain references, but in the very process of creation these references disappear, paving the way for fresh ideas," Sarkis says of his work.
In addition, viewers were able to contemplate neon sentences selected and written by gallery staff. These haiku-like phrases present words not as direct communication tools, but as a poetic medium that allows one to read "between the lines".
Fascinated by contemporary visual culture, Sarkis exploits neon differently to the original - using its persuasive, enticing glow and links to the advertising industry, he attempts to evoke empathy in viewers. At the same time, these delicate, gas-filled tubes seem to attract people also, or perhaps above all, as a design object - an extremely photogenic material that works well for social media, among other things.
Sarkis Zabunyan is an Armenian artist born in Istanbul in 1938. He moved to Paris in the 1960s and is known for his works touching on subjects as tragic as the Armenian Genocide, for example. He was inspired, among others, by Joseph Beuys, who appears in the collages with photographs from LIFE magazine presented at the Zachęta exhibition.