"He told me, what I wanted to know for a long time. I thought, that knowing it would make me calm and happy. He took a deep breath and revealed that secret to me with godly awe. I forgot it in a couple of minutes. It was either some bogus or something, I knew already. It just made me a bit fed up. I told myself, I would find it on the internet, but then I just didn´t feel like it. I already opened a browsing window, but then some pop-up window appeared on the screen about designing accessories from plastic bottles."
Kateřina Baránková
Kateřina Baránková´s portfolio consists mainly of works, that have a common central point - the authorial text. In many ways, the text is destructured, explored and rearranged into the final version, that is in opposition to strict systemic nature while keeping its space for being unfounded. The initial text is then metamorphosed into various forms. In her previous works, it is in the form of the spoken word. In the installation I want to scare you with my calm, the literary initial text is not subject to time, doesn´t flow in the form of sound, but stays at the place as a written text. It is possible then, to stop at the end of an article, or to reread a sentence. There may be reflected also her long-termed motif of the inability of perceiving presence and time. As reading instructions for making jelly on the backside of wrapping requires a different level of concentration than watching a YouTube tutorial.
Another part of the exhibition is formed by a photo collage resembling product pictures commonly used in advertisements. Jelly cubes could, therefore, be ice or stone cubes. Carefully edited photos could as well be 3D models. Although, they are not. Disguise and illusion, the ambivalence of truthfulness, that cannot be verified by our senses and therefore we are unable to come to a clear conclusion. We are standing at thin ice and may only rely on our intuition and begin to trust with caution. To stop melting means to find peace and form an illusion of balance. I want to frighten you with my calm.
