The Difficulties of Decoding Artefacts
Text for Atanas Totlyakov's solo exhibition at Heerz Tooya Gallery
For the exhibition at the Heerz Tooya Gallery, Totlyakov chooses to present his works related to the Sitovo inscriptions located near Plovdiv in Bulgaria. The inscription has been known to scholars since 1928, and various hypotheses about its origin have emerged since then, but it remains unclear. The main object in the exhibition is an immediate print taken directly from the Sitovo inscription made by the artist twenty years ago. Totlyakov also presents photos taken with an analog camera during his visit to the site of the Sitovo inscription and paintings appropriating elements in the inscription. Together, the different works in the exhibition reveal the changes in the attempt to make a direct imprint of already existing artifacts. Even if the imprint is caused by direct contact with the inscription, each imprint is different because of the artist's hand making the imprint and his gaze that chooses which lines to connect in a sign.
There are various hypotheses about the meaning of the Sitovo inscriptions. One of them related to ancient writing, indicating hiding messages from other cultures. The exhibition spectator is not obliged to decipher the meaning and origin of this sign but will look at it as a work of art existing in a gallery context. The presentation of this inscription in a gallery space will be an occasion to reflect on how we look at signs and our desire to create meaning, stories about signs, and forms that are unclear to us. As many researchers try to discover the inscription's meaning, the spectators of the exhibition can interpret the inscription freely. The exhibition visitor may try to complete the signs and turn them into a familiar script to liken them to already-known works of art to understand them. Yet, the exhibition and its objects involve us in a vicious circle of interpretations, which can make us feel claustrophobic.
The interpretation of one sign from the exhibition leads us to another interpretation, and it to a third until our semiotic imagination leads to an unconditional end. This rhizomatic (Deleuze and Guattari) interpretation creates infinite possible connections and branches between us and objects. But if it is possible to break with this endless interpretation, is it possible to bring back the memory of what we saw in the first stance?
Seeing something, we often fall into the trap of interpretation because we are trained to find the essence of the images we look at as we interpret them. In her essay Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag speaks about the connection between understanding and interpretation. Interpretation means "to restate the phenomenon, in effect, to find an equivalent for it." When the image is unknown to us, we need to liken it to something familiar to understand it. Once we connect the unfamiliar image with the familiar, we can fulfill it with meaning. Sontag calls this act of connecting meaning "makes art manageable, conformable," and "thus one tames the work of art." My role as a curator of and writer for the objects you observe in the exhibition is to tame and understand them and then translate them. What is more important is your experience watching this exhibition. My appeal to you as a viewer is to let the images influence you before you try to fill them with meaning. What Sontag considers important now is "to restore our senses ... we need to learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more. "Allow yourself to observe and imagine, to create your own images from those seen in the exhibition. It is becoming increasingly difficult for us to be surprised by images and observe their sensory effects on us.
Our senses are losing their power in a world based on a surplus of images that exist in both our virtual and natural environments. So let us not accept my experience and understanding of these works as unreserved.
Artworks part of the Atanas Totlyakov's solo exhibition at the Heerz Tooya Gallery
