landscapes I
/8
- landscapes I
- 1972
- print on paper, envelope plus 9 cards
- 11,4 × 11 cm
Each of this work’s individual pages contains two English terms, horizontally separated, for two colors. Above the horizontal line is always the word “blue,” while below is always a term for another color—e.g., “green.” Actual colors, which are by definition visual manifestations, are missing; in other words, they exists only as verbal representations. However, all of this cycle’s parts evoke a horizon in the landscape. This series stems from Jiří Valoch’s crucial interest in combining a sign’s semantic and extra-semantic features and exploring how these elements relate to one another. The typical connection between signifying and signified is loosened, with the words emerging as individual elements of reality in combination with a minimalistic drawing of a horizontal line. The artist, in this case, creates a universally reduced situation that, based on a verbal representation of colors, is supposed to evoke a view of the landscape. One’s mind is called upon to participate actively, connecting the general with the specific, in order to arrive at one’s own conceptual connection between signifying and signified, which is inseparable from perception. J.P.