THE GROUND OF THINGS
The Ground of Things began in 2019 from a chance meeting between Aleksander and Vasyl in Gdansk, Poland. Aleksander revealed himself to be a poet to Vasyl after seeing his artwork, and further conversation between the two sparked an idea to collaborate. The Ground of Things is not what one might think of as a traditional collaboration, where both consult with each other, see each other’s work, then have more conversations about what their contribution will be. Aleksander and Vasyl work cooperatively but independently. Aleksander will show Vasyl a poem, Vasyl will create a charcoal drawing; Vasyl may initiate and send Aleksander a charcoal drawing and Aleksander will write a poem. The creative works are not necessarily based on each other, perhaps a reaction, perhaps a simple, intuitive response. Neither edits the other’s poetry or art, nor makes suggestions about what the other’s ought to be or how to think about the process. They accept it.
UIMA’s presentation of The Ground of Things is its second iteration. In the first, shown at the WGS BWA, Contemporary Art Gallery (Old Mine) in Walbrzych, Poland, from 2022-23, Vasyl’s artwork followed Aleksander’s poems- in other words, the poetry appeared first. The reverse is here at UIMA. Vasyl’s charcoal drawings preceded Aleksander’s poems. The two don’t typically create in the same location. They send each other work through the internet, their phones, whatever device is at hand. They may be traveling, finding inspiration in a new environment, or, as Vasyl has been recently, working on a new drawing at 2am.
What ideas or sensibilities do these two creators share for this collaboration to be so successful and ongoing? -They are already thinking about the next iteration. There is clearly mutual respect for each other’s artistic vision, and individual autonomy. On a deeper level, they hold deep respect for time, the sensibilities of ancient philosophers, literary and artistic icons, and the significance of place – its architecture, lighting, people, nature, movement. Aleksander’s poems are ekphrasis, a word used in ancient Greece, to express an object which is vividly described, often an artwork.
Homer’s The Iliad is an example, as well as the modern “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats. Aleksander’s are both evocative and minimalist - ‘haiku-like’ as he told me recently. Heraclitus, Ezra Pound, a conversation between Vladimir Nabokov’s brother and Igor Stravinsky in “Orpheus”, the artist Francis Bacon assessing his practice by comparing himself to a shoemaker in “Francis II”, are some of the poems’ characters. Time moving forward, the subtlety of change and other meditations on experiencing the world comprise the substance of his work. His poem “Aletheia” perhaps captures his outlook most accurately - that truth is something that is unveiled.
Vasyl, like Aleksander, prefers to “say more with less”, through minimal means. A simple mark, stroke of charcoal, or gradient shadow are enough to complement his words. Composed only of black and white, they avoid additional expressive vocabulary, such as color. Their simplicity, rather, is transferred onto new materials, from charcoal drawing to silkscreen, from silkscreen to digital media, and so on. Each medium presents the viewer with a new context with which to understand the work’s meaning. Digital media are immediate and quickly transitory if seen for a few seconds on Instagram, Facebook, and websites. They can also be projected and enlarged within a gallery. Does the straightforward contrast of black and white draw greater attention? What if sound were added? This has been a topic of conversation amongst ourselves, Aleksander and Vasyl during our many meetings. Oration is an important component of Aleksander’s poems:read aloud, vocal inflection draws out their inherent internalization as textual material into shared living experience. Viewer immersion in the gallery space is key, providing a sensory world apart from the routine of daily life, filled with tasks to be accomplished, meetings, shopping, and traveling to work and home. With The Ground of Things, we are granted an opportunity to see inside the minds of Aleksander and Vasyl, sparking a larger conversation on creative collaboration within ourselves.
Adrienne Kochman, PhD
Curator UIMA
Aleksander Najda
Aleksander Najda comes from Wałbrzych, Poland where he was born and raised. He attended the Mining Technical School. Immediately after graduating, he moved abroad, where he continues to live today. As he describes himself:
Passionately, he is a marathon runner
Academically, he is an art historian
Vocationally, he is a poet
Mr. Najda studied art history at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he earned a Ph.D. in art history. Among other honors, he received the prestigious Fulbright Award, Dean’s Award, and International Studies Award in 2010. His academic interests focus on the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, the phenomenon of synesthesia in art, and the transition of artistic expression from one radically new language to another.
His hidden passion, which few know about, is the circus
He is an enthusiast of silent films
His unparalleled models and heroes include his Mother, Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Saint Peter, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Cimabue, Giotto, and those “betrayed at dawn.”
His favorite composers are Rhim, Carter, Lutosławski, Gesualdo, and Bach
His favorite book is Ulysses
His favorite poet is Homer
His favorite poetess is Ingeborg Bachmann
His favorite authors are Saint John the Evangelist and Saint John of the Cross
His favorite playwright is Sophocles
His favorite holidays are Bloomsday and Thanksgiving
His favorite foods are bread and wine
His favorite activity is swimming with his two labradors
His favorite colors are the rose-fingered dawn, beech bark, Veronese green, blood, ultramarine, and Pompeian red
His favorite orchestra is the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado
In brief, he describes himself as an optimist without a specific reason.
Vasyl Savchenko is a Ukrainian artist born in 1994 in Lviv, Ukraine. Currently living and working in Gdansk, Poland.
Interdisciplinary artist working on art and design in various visual media, coordinator and curator of art projects. In recent years he has been studying the impact of modern technologies on art and its methodology, focusing on the development of analog graphics in the post-digital phenomenon. He is interested in the future and identity in the context of the memory of the human body and the dreams of our inner world. He mainly works with analog hand/machine drawing, using various tools to realise projects and ideas.
He has participated in more than 100 international exhibitions, art projects, residencies, and symposiums in Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Portugal, Italy, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Spain, USA, China, Japan, Thailand, and Egypt.
He received his education and two master's degrees from Lviv National Academy of Arts, Monumental Painting (Ukraine), and Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Faculty of Graphic and Media Arts (Poland).
Since 2018, he has run the Digital Techniques Studio, currently the Post-Digital Graphics Studio at the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland.
Since 2021, co-founder of the Savchenko Foundation, which looks after the cultural institution Savchenko Gallery in Gdansk, Poland.
2019 and 2022 - two-time Scholarship Recipient of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage "Gaude Polonia", with a residency in Gdansk.
2017 - author of the scenography for the opera “Cracovians and Highlanders” (“Krakowiacy i Górale”), directed by Barbara Wisniewska, at the Wroclaw Opera House in Poland;