Ján Zelinka — In Search of the Essence (Badger)

Nitra Gallery is a publicly funded institution which focuses on researching and presenting works of art from the 20th and 21st centuries. This focus also includes its efforts to reflect upon contemporary trends in sculpture. In 2021, a new acquisition was made for the collection fund. While working on In Search of the Essence, Zelinka has created/cast several animal torsos (of a pheasant, horse, deer, cow, badger…). The sculptures are a result of the artist’s unique creative process when he casts plaster into sewed-up animal skins. Once dry, the plaster-cast cavities/pockets are subsequently rid of the skin (cover) and become sculptures. The artist intentionally leaves marks left by the casting process which also speaks to its properties. The actual result of the creative process could be interpreted in various ways. The fragile sculptures comes across as ephemeral beings, without its own corporeity, but on the other hand, they could be perceived as an effort by the artist to remind us of/locate the animal soul which is no longer alive – by taking control over the inside of the body by casting plaster and moulding the internal part (soul). Zelinka claims his “series titled In Search of the Essence forces us to think about the inner contents of things, creatures.” The sculptor finds the animals for his sculptures in nature. He never takes live specimen, but rather always looks for dead ones. 

 The sculpture of the badger’s “internals” is a proud representative of a (post)humanising, ecological, experimental and also tradition-focused sculpture style. Ján Zelinka is, without any doubt, one of the most interesting sculptors of today. His work meaningfully connects material with nature and form. His vividly expressive and existentially focused work features a lot of tension between the body and its corporeity which is confronted with spiritual and religious poetics. Zelinka’s themes move between life and death and their various connections. The actual form and content of his works are on equal levels of importance. His sensitivity and improvisation skills are also a part of his other works, like the sculptural group My Siblings (Triplets) – Anton, Róbert, Peter * 11. 3. 1975 +11. 3. 1975 which depicts his siblings that died before the artist was born. He used only his intuition and haptic experience with the material to carve cavities (the suggested little bodies) of his brothers with his bare hands. By digging into the material, he was searching for their visual image and creating a mental image of them. He then cast the created cavities with concrete. In his series Requiem for Organisms, he uses dead animal remains to create metal sarcophagi. It represents the body’s preservation for eternity which has been a common theme across the history of various cultures. Zelinka’s sarcophagi generate many questions about our society, man and nature. It is also worth mentioning his series of busts titled Head I, II, III, IV which depict his loved ones. He would press their faces into clay, cast concrete into the imprints and then leave them in this “raw” authentic and unmodified state. In another one of his sculptures titled Lamb of God, which is an ideological appropriation of a piece by D. Hirst, Zelinka incorporates sheep droppings as an example of the circle of life and the existence of God. Searching for a meaning is also a theme which is common to some of his other works, e.g. Gold-Plated Children, Document, Iconoclasm, PosthumousConsciousness… 

Besides his (un)conventional sculptures, Zelinka is also an avid drawer, his drawings often serve as a record of his later sculptural endeavours. He is not opposed to drawing with rust, smoke, plant juice, e.g. Rotted Fruit Drawing, Red Cabbage Drawing, Anonymous etc.