Erik Šille’s (1978) solo exhibition presents a selection of his current works. The exhibition is divided into two parts – in the upper space, we present Šille’s large-scale works on paper combined with smaller sketches. Bottom PS space is dedicated to artist’s paintings.
Šille’s fascination by Japanese art and culture has been present since his studies at the AFAD in Bratislava. During the last five years, he went on two residencies to Tokyo, one of which took place in January this year. As Erik Šille says: „My personal goal was to undermine the artistic scheme and to escape from the certainties of painterly techniques and materials. It seemed to me, that the most resourceful and, at the same time, playful tool is one from a completely different world – a ball deodorant. A bottle filled with black ink becomes almost intractable, therefore the final structure is a result of a coincidence. It is, so to speak, somehow primitive treatment of a technique.” Moreover, the amount of sake – Japanese rice wine - plays its own role, since the artist mixes it with the ink. It is a quick process, during which the artist must engage in ad-lib and playfulness. Animals such as teddy bear or a puppy are one of Šille’s favorite motives, which represent human banality, awkwardness or an everyday civil indecency. Publicly well-known paintings of Erik Šille are a result of a slow painterly process, where thinking about the image connects with a gradual composition building. In the case of these drawings on a wet paper, it is a quick work and the important aspect is the moment of a creative act.
The second part of the exhibition presents a selection of recent paintings, on which a “Mr. Melon” appears as the main character or as a symbol. Šille comments on these works with the words: “Mr. Melon is a Slovak and he deals with today’s situations. Slovakia is, with its inhospitableness and paranoia, an alienated environment, even if Mr. Melon is endemic to this environment, which means he does not grow anywhere else. He is not able to enjoy the mountains, the country and the diversity of our culture, he is a disinformation and endless guesswork on the internet consumer. While he gardens, aliens are kidnapping his house and a family. Mr. Melon is black and when you cut him in half, his seeds are in the shape of a tear. It is pathetic and there is a disillusion to it.”
Gabriela Kisová
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