Barbora Šemberová↓

About the work

And There Was a Paper Land and I Got as far as Where You Stand

Barbora Šemberová’s diploma thesis draws from the book Czech Folk Tales. The Animal and the Magic by the editor Jaroslav Otčenášek. It builds on her previous work, related to folk traditions, customs and rituals, especially the rituals linked with weddings. Some associate them with their life goals and their idea of happiness and wellbeing:
if they complete certain tasks, they will prosper every after. If a woman manages to resist evil forces and ghosts before marriage, she and her husband will live happily until death do them part. Šemberová, employing the symbols of ghosts and elements taken from rituals, thus portrays the imaginary paths of life. Fairytales serve her to directly follow in people’s life stories. These were invented and narrated all over the world, while both the narrators and listeners have always been aware that they were fictional.

Šemberová works with the idea that fairytales reflect the nature of people (although we do not know from what time and country), and chooses moments that usually bring the good and a happy ending to the hero. The means leading to the good are often very cruel, but mentioned in a lightweight and self-evident manner. The artist concentrates on how these moments are narrated, and retells the stories.

The result is a series of large-dimensional drawings, oil paintings of smaller dimensions, and wooden objects that present the above-mentioned principles in slightly different ways. Šemberová lays emphasis on colors – they, too, tell part of the story. In her drawings, she layers images and abstract color surfaces, applied with dry and oil pastels. Her non-specific wooden objects substitute the environment and Nature as well as living creatures. The motifs pile up on each other, while every work presents a different story. In the whole, the stories and the individual motifs repeat, being told all over again. Barbora Šemberová does not give any guidelines to viewers as how to read her paintings, drawings and objects – there is only other versions of the story.