VERONIKA BROMOVA: HaHathor's Handbag
23 Mar - 22 May 2007
Flight Me, 2005, digital color print on canvas, 130 x 200 cm
view of the exhibition
view of the exhibition
view of the exhibition
Gifts of the Nun, 2005, digital color print on canvas, 130 x 165 cm
Goddess of Fertility, 2005, digital color print on canvas, 130 x 200 cm
VERONIKA BROMOVA
HaHathors Handbag
hunt kastner artworks presents a new series of self-portraits by Veronika Bromová that were inspired by the strength of the visual and spiritual imagery of ancient Egyptian civilization. The exhibition centers around five large-scale photographs (130 x 200cm) dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Hathor, created with 3D graphic technology and printed on canvas. The photographs were originally exhibited in Sweden in 2005-2006 as a part of the traveling exhibition Content - the Handbag in Contemporary Art (Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Art Museum Boras, Art Museum Sundsval).
In 2003, Bromová traveled to Egypt where, at the temple of Dender, about 70 km north of Luxor, she discovered Hathor, the goddess of fertility and earthly pleasures, to whom the temple is dedicated. While touring the site, she came across a large relief in the stone of a woman carrying something made in the shape of an amphora, with what looked like mushrooms sprouting out from the sides and which looked very much like a small evening handbag... something to hold all the things that we cannot do without on our journeys. “....for me, it evoked a dark secret feeling; the feeling that it was an object from which we can extract a secret substance, a psychotropic extract by which one can be taken to some other dimension of sensory perception and to an understanding of the never-ending splendor. A place that the ancient Egyptians dreamt of, a place where they hoped and believed that they would wind up on their journey into the afterlife. Like the Egyptian book of the dead, in which one finds the chapter about leaving the material world for that of eternal splendor “.
Bromová‘s Hathor cycle of floating figures and strange objects in mysterious environments in psychedelic colors evoke early sci-fi films and in this same way are at once magical and endearing in their naiveté. Escape and dreams are, of course, not the domain of children alone but like children we need something to hold on to on our journeys. Something which is ours alone, like a security blanket – in this case the handbag, every woman’s favorite accessory so versatile but at once very personal and unique.
Veronika Bromova (born 1966 in Prague) is one the best known new media artists in the Czech Republic. She has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States, represented the Czech Republic at the Venice Biennale in 1991, has work in major Czech and European public collections, including the Prague National Gallery, Pompidou Center in Paris and Museum for Modern Art, and since 2001 has headed up the School for New Media II at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. She is a part of the new generation of artists, who graduated from the art academies after the fall of communism, which was centered around a strong core of women – including Kateřina Vincourová, Marketa Othová, Štepanka Šimlová, Jana Vidová, Elen Řadová – who impressed the newly emerging art scene with their fearless experimentation and use of new technology and their unabashed, unapologetic, deep personal and intimate statements.
additional information available on: www.huntkastner.com
HaHathors Handbag
hunt kastner artworks presents a new series of self-portraits by Veronika Bromová that were inspired by the strength of the visual and spiritual imagery of ancient Egyptian civilization. The exhibition centers around five large-scale photographs (130 x 200cm) dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Hathor, created with 3D graphic technology and printed on canvas. The photographs were originally exhibited in Sweden in 2005-2006 as a part of the traveling exhibition Content - the Handbag in Contemporary Art (Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Art Museum Boras, Art Museum Sundsval).
In 2003, Bromová traveled to Egypt where, at the temple of Dender, about 70 km north of Luxor, she discovered Hathor, the goddess of fertility and earthly pleasures, to whom the temple is dedicated. While touring the site, she came across a large relief in the stone of a woman carrying something made in the shape of an amphora, with what looked like mushrooms sprouting out from the sides and which looked very much like a small evening handbag... something to hold all the things that we cannot do without on our journeys. “....for me, it evoked a dark secret feeling; the feeling that it was an object from which we can extract a secret substance, a psychotropic extract by which one can be taken to some other dimension of sensory perception and to an understanding of the never-ending splendor. A place that the ancient Egyptians dreamt of, a place where they hoped and believed that they would wind up on their journey into the afterlife. Like the Egyptian book of the dead, in which one finds the chapter about leaving the material world for that of eternal splendor “.
Bromová‘s Hathor cycle of floating figures and strange objects in mysterious environments in psychedelic colors evoke early sci-fi films and in this same way are at once magical and endearing in their naiveté. Escape and dreams are, of course, not the domain of children alone but like children we need something to hold on to on our journeys. Something which is ours alone, like a security blanket – in this case the handbag, every woman’s favorite accessory so versatile but at once very personal and unique.
Veronika Bromova (born 1966 in Prague) is one the best known new media artists in the Czech Republic. She has exhibited extensively in Europe and the United States, represented the Czech Republic at the Venice Biennale in 1991, has work in major Czech and European public collections, including the Prague National Gallery, Pompidou Center in Paris and Museum for Modern Art, and since 2001 has headed up the School for New Media II at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. She is a part of the new generation of artists, who graduated from the art academies after the fall of communism, which was centered around a strong core of women – including Kateřina Vincourová, Marketa Othová, Štepanka Šimlová, Jana Vidová, Elen Řadová – who impressed the newly emerging art scene with their fearless experimentation and use of new technology and their unabashed, unapologetic, deep personal and intimate statements.
additional information available on: www.huntkastner.com