Stanislav Masár — Overpressure of Being 1, 2, 3

Influences of Dadaism, conceptual art or Marcel Duchamp can be found in the work of Stano Masár. However, he does not receive these influences uncritically, but he confronts them with his own opinions, experiences and creative methods. Masár often creates absurd and paradoxical situations; he uses humour and playfulness in order to take objects of daily use (for example furniture, doors, radiators or shopping trolleys) to new unexpected relations. He interprets the works of classics and contemporary artists in large series. His work has different media outputs, but most often it is objects and site-specific or context-sensitive installations in which he explores the operation of artistic creativity, its perception and many other phenomena connected to the art world (often linked to our everyday experiences), based on his specific methods of manipulation, paraphrase, appropriation, critical analysis and transformation.

The three objects from the collection of The Nitra Gallery belong to a larger cycle titled Overpressure of Being. These are different electrical sockets, switches or extension cords, where the author placed hyperrealist models of human fingers. In various exhibitions, he presents these objects casually placed or inconspicuously installed on a wall so that they don’t look like artefacts, but like real functional objects found in any gallery. The viewer might be surprised or maybe even shocked when he spots fingers sticking out of a socket or a switch, looking real at a first glance. Masár purposely works with the tactics of surprise and break away from reality (or creating a new reality) – he stages an absurd situation that uses the transformation/interchange of the generally used codes of perception of reality, causing a feeling of uncertainty in us. The title of the series has an existential undertone, as the overpressure (outside from within) can be seen as “jostling” of different psychological and inner manifestations of our consciousness and subconsciousness to the surface. Masár’s typical ambiguity also (self)ironises this reading at the same time, because the mentioned overpressure can also be something trying to come out of the inside of the wall.

Stano Masár offers us new, unexpected and refreshing views of our prosaic everyday reality – on things and signs that we do not take notice of very often, or do not realize. But nevertheless, we should remember that sticking fingers into sockets does not pay off!