To exhibit

The meaning of the word exhibit speaks for itself, but coming from Latin it also means leaving something behind, and explain. That’s surprising, isn’t it? I feel like I am relinguishing or giving up my works, even though it is only temporary. And as for that explaining, well… I always like to explain things.

The picture shows a panoramic view of my solo exposition “surprise” in Pécs (Hungary) where I left 23 of my statues (January 8. – February 5.).

To me exhibition or exposition means a springboard out, from my private workshop to the outside world, which is not awaiting me. Do I have to conquer that? Well, I don’t think so. To me, it’s about sharing what is possible in the proces of nothing to something. Every new attempt to try and shape a piece of wood to an object is an exploration, and in the meantime you travel known paths helping you along, while sometimes you immediately find yourself in unknown territory. A piece of wood has a form in itself that needs to be discovered. That is how I see it. Shaping asks for knowledge of material and tools, skills, but also for leaving experience behind and finding new ways.


I do not have detailed pictures of all my statues, but I can give you this example. Janusz was a piece of wood with a branch. After removing some parts and trying to see through the mass, I came up with the idea to make a two-faced bird which inspired me to call the statue Janusz (I wrote about Janusz on Facebook January 2.) In Roman antiquity Janusz was the god of New Year. He was mainly depicted with an old and a new portret head, the old one facing down and the younger one raising its head. Surprise plays a significant role in my work because I try to be open to the characteristics of the material I work with. I hardly use any machines, because I find that working by hand gives me opportunity to develop ideas as I go along.