Gyula Várnai

ArtistGyula VÁRNAI: A New Refutation of Time, 2006

Gyula VÁRNAI

http://www.varnaigyula.hu

A New Refutation of Time, 2006

Light installation (slide projector, clock, condensing lens, mirrors, stands) 990 × 300 × 200 cm (Irokéz Collection)

SÁNDOR HORNYIK – DARK CHAMBERS OF SECRETS Words, images and things in Gyula Várnai’s works

By genre (or medium), A New Refutation of Time (2006) is described as a light installation, which is tricky to say the least, if not downright misleading. Várnai does not merely project lights on walls; he installs a complex device in the exhibition space. A New Refutation of Time is not just a succession of projected images, but also an imaging device, whose mirrors and lenses segment the dial of an ordinary clock in surprising fashion in Várnai’s ‘experiment’. The successive images do not break up time and the clock face in linear, continuous manner. The twelve reflected images show the hand of the clock appearing here and there, almost at random, but at the same time carefully designed. The visual collage seems to indicate that this is a refutal of the absolute time of Newton and God, while the device itself relativises not only the time, but also the absoluteness of scientific visualisation. Jorge Louis Borges took a deep interest in the passing of time and the philosophical descriptions thereof. One of his essays on the subject happens to be entitled A New Refutation of Time. Várnai’s works enable the aporias of pre-Socratic philosophy, the paradoxes of Zen Buddhism and the Big Bang of modern cosmology to rendezvous at the point of time in Borges’ poetry. Várnai first exhibited his own refutation of independent, objective time the Church space of the Kiscelli Museum. The 2006 exhibition, One of the Rare Moments, reflected on time on a number of levels. It involved the time of the church space and that of history, as well as the time of moving light installations, clocks, books and shelves. The moment of the clock was but one among many; yet, it is important for us now because the measurement of time is the scientific problem par excellence. The function of workaday reality in the sciences and arts is thus not to be underestimated, something that Einstein’s clocks illustrate as vividly as Várnai’s printed characters. (Incidentally, the artist is not just an amateur astronomer and musician, but also a professional printer.) A New Refutation of Time represents how art today can find a home in the complex mazes of Science, Religion, Economy and Everyday Life, to become a rare moment on certain occasions, in certain artworks and in certain systems of reference.

Mátyási Péter 2009-ben végzett a Magyar Képzőművészeti Egyetem festő- és vizuális nevelőtanár szakán. Ugyanebben az évben tanulmányokat folytatott Londonban a Chelsea College of Art and Design-on. Számos csoportos kiállításon vett részt Magyarországon és külföldön egyaránt. Kiállított több nagy presztízsű nemzetközi művészeti vásáron, például a new york-i The Armory Show-n, az Art Brussels-en vagy a torinói Artissimán. 2013-ban elnyerte a Contemporary Pastel Prize díjat, majd 2016-ban a Pastel Society díját, illetve a Salgótarjáni Grafikai Triennálé egyik nagydíját. Budapesten született, él és dolgozik.
A művészt a Molnár Ani Galéria képviseli.

CONTACT

OPENING HOURS

LOCATION

PRESS

IMPRESSUM