VISUAL ART
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ALEKSANDRA VAJD & MARKÉTA OTHOVÁ: WHAT IS LIFE? Celebrating two eminent fi gures in Central and East European photography
Opposites attract in this joint exhibition which forms part of the Czech Season in Scotland. Where Markéta Othová’s off-kilter still life studies are writ large, Aleksandra Vajd’s images are miniscule in comparison. Just as Othová’s pictures are i gurative and recognisable, Vajd’s miniatures play with form, colour and concept. With each artist’s work hung side by side, the pair mark out their territory by way of a spectrum of scale.
Othová takes the seemingly ordinary and choreographs it with a sense of sculptural dei nition: an isometric patterned rug sprawls into view; a small plate is placed inside a larger one so it resembles a target; the curves of a lamp set against a jet-black backdrop lends new meaning to mood lighting. A half-full/empty glass of water houses a leaf-strewn plant captured in that l eeting moment of thriving.
Vajd’s assorted images on sheets of rectangular photographic paper contrasts their central blacks with yellows, pinks, browns, greens and blues at the corners. Like department store sock displays, they’re either i led or coded atop each other and lined up side by side in groups of six, or else overlap and conjoin to form graphs of pure colour. In one room, the sheets are split into op-art triangles of black and white. It’s all very New Wave.
For all the differences between the artists, there is some common ground, most noticeable in Othová’s cloudburst of pink i reworks placed next to Vajd’s Day-Glo graph. If a black void is at the centre of both, it’s merely a trick of the light. (Neil Cooper) ■ Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, until Sat 18 Nov ●●●●●
1 Nov 2017–31 Jan 2018 THE LIST 123