Patrik Illo — Reverse

Patrik Illo is a glass designer respected both at home and abroad, but he also works with other materials. In the past, he worked with textile, leather and plush and with objects (garments, toys, sports equipment) that had come from the design industry. Incorporating various comical shifts in their meanings and functions, he puts them in new, often surprising contexts. At the moment, his creative program focuses mostly on moulded and cast glass which he combines with other materials in order to create spacial objects and installations. The most typical aspects of his design work, which can be also found in his freelance art, include intelligent humour, playfulness, induction of embarrassment, but also high levels of functionality and craftsmanship.

The object titled Reverse, which is a part of Nitra Gallery’s collection, was recreated for the Fetishes of Today exhibition which was held at Nitra Gallery’s Representative Halls between December 13, 2018 and March 31, 2019 and curated by Ľudmila Kasaj Poláčková and Omar Mirza. The object is a plush teddy bear which is, as the title suggests, in reverse – the soft brown plush is on the inside and its smooth red satin is on the outside. The teddy bear’s zipper reveals slightly its viscera and its tempting opening invites us to play with it and cuddle it. The twisted game with materials is a play on connotations and the viewer’s perception and its main goal is to make them uncertain about the basic function of an everyday object. The kids toy becomes the adult toy and a little obscene and fetishistic object.