Ryan Parteka
03 Mar - 07 Apr 2007
RYAN PARTEKA
"Castigatio"
It is as if we have arrived in purgatory: a space in between life, death, heaven and hell, a place of penance, where sins are washed away, after which the gates of heaven will open for us. The association is evoked by the bars surrounding the gallery's anteroom, the buzzing sounds, the red fluid behind the bars, the ropes on the floor, and the prominently displayed word 'Castigatio' (penance).
For his exhibition in Playstation, Ryan Parteka drew inspiration from a famous chapter in Amsterdam's history. During one of his forays into old documents, he stumbled on an account of the old Rasphuis on Heiligeweg, written by a Portuguese traveller. The writer relates that this house of correction, established in the sixteenth century, possessed a 'drowning cell'. Prisoners would be confined to the cell while it was slowly filled with water. Their only salvation lay in pumping out the water. According to this particular source, pumping would only delay death; the prisoners died of exhaustion anyway. The old gate of the house of correction with the word 'Castigatio' and the personification of the city of Amsterdam brandishing a whip, flanked by two manacled men, can still be seen on Heiligeweg.
Ryan Parteka's installation evokes the interior of a cell. From behind the bars, a red fluid is mechanically pumped in, and then out again, in rhythmic movements. The white, chalklike ropes or shackles, consisting of the binding agents that are used in medicines, are scattered around the floor. The space is filled with a crackling, organic but lifeless, electronic sound. The neon letters, filled with red fluid, that form the word 'Castigatio', seem intended to name the whole - to embrace it.
Ryan Parteka brings home to us that the lives we are living today are inextricably linked to the past - sometimes consciously, but more often unconsciously. This ineradicable connection is hard to demonstrate, however. In his installation, Parteka mixes different times and themes, thus highlighting essential questions. He creates a present-day purgatory, a place for reflection, contemplation and penance.
[Laura van Grinsven]
© Ryan Parteka
"Castigatio"
It is as if we have arrived in purgatory: a space in between life, death, heaven and hell, a place of penance, where sins are washed away, after which the gates of heaven will open for us. The association is evoked by the bars surrounding the gallery's anteroom, the buzzing sounds, the red fluid behind the bars, the ropes on the floor, and the prominently displayed word 'Castigatio' (penance).
For his exhibition in Playstation, Ryan Parteka drew inspiration from a famous chapter in Amsterdam's history. During one of his forays into old documents, he stumbled on an account of the old Rasphuis on Heiligeweg, written by a Portuguese traveller. The writer relates that this house of correction, established in the sixteenth century, possessed a 'drowning cell'. Prisoners would be confined to the cell while it was slowly filled with water. Their only salvation lay in pumping out the water. According to this particular source, pumping would only delay death; the prisoners died of exhaustion anyway. The old gate of the house of correction with the word 'Castigatio' and the personification of the city of Amsterdam brandishing a whip, flanked by two manacled men, can still be seen on Heiligeweg.
Ryan Parteka's installation evokes the interior of a cell. From behind the bars, a red fluid is mechanically pumped in, and then out again, in rhythmic movements. The white, chalklike ropes or shackles, consisting of the binding agents that are used in medicines, are scattered around the floor. The space is filled with a crackling, organic but lifeless, electronic sound. The neon letters, filled with red fluid, that form the word 'Castigatio', seem intended to name the whole - to embrace it.
Ryan Parteka brings home to us that the lives we are living today are inextricably linked to the past - sometimes consciously, but more often unconsciously. This ineradicable connection is hard to demonstrate, however. In his installation, Parteka mixes different times and themes, thus highlighting essential questions. He creates a present-day purgatory, a place for reflection, contemplation and penance.
[Laura van Grinsven]
© Ryan Parteka