Grating
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- Grating
- Mřiž
- 1974
- 4 b&w photographs mounted on paper
- each 22,8 x 16,9 cm
Courtyard of the Klementinum
5 Mariánské naměstí, Prague 1
Karel Miler’s performance entitled "Grating" works with the limits of the body and of a given object or surface. The artist examines the structures of a sewer grate, kneeling on the ground with his head down. As a follower of Zen Buddhism, he remains in a fixed posture except for his arms and his hands, with which he touches the grate’s corners and edges as well as its middle section. His confined body thus faces an object that is also confined within the square opening on the ground. Miler’s gauging of the grate’s grid structure can also be viewed as an exercise that requires spiritual contemplation. The four photographs from this performance demonstrate the different positions in which the artist is confronted with a partitioned object on the ground, much as in earlier performances in which he faced a wall and dealt with it in his very own poetic manner. W.S.
5 Mariánské naměstí, Prague 1
Karel Miler’s performance entitled "Grating" works with the limits of the body and of a given object or surface. The artist examines the structures of a sewer grate, kneeling on the ground with his head down. As a follower of Zen Buddhism, he remains in a fixed posture except for his arms and his hands, with which he touches the grate’s corners and edges as well as its middle section. His confined body thus faces an object that is also confined within the square opening on the ground. Miler’s gauging of the grate’s grid structure can also be viewed as an exercise that requires spiritual contemplation. The four photographs from this performance demonstrate the different positions in which the artist is confronted with a partitioned object on the ground, much as in earlier performances in which he faced a wall and dealt with it in his very own poetic manner. W.S.