Kristína Haviarová↓

About the work

I only have two rooms, the left and right hemispheres

Kristína Haviarová’s diploma thesis was inspired by her relation to the spaces she has inhabited, whether it is the house where she grew up or her current apartment. Minor and major repairs, replacement of parts and components, aesthetic modifications, reconstruction, vitality of appliances – all this played an important role for her, especially recently when the vast majority of activities took place in a space delimited by several walls. Haviarová, as is characteristic of her work, approached the space of the apartment as an independent entity, which, like the human body, is subject to wear and tear and subsequent care.

The resulting installation is composed of models of the home environment – the stands, walls and chairs created by the artist are complemented by various objects: representatives of function, utility, decor, life. Emphasis is laid on the combination of manual work with the material (ceramic clay, clay plaster) and industrially produced components (door lock), or natural forms (parts of withered plants).

Haviarová’s work is a visual speculation accompanied by a personal text. She ponders over the paradox of the immobility of commodities, where, despite current consumption and hyperproduction, their lifespan still exceeds that of humans. Are they the inhabitants of our dwellings, or is it we who dwell in their world? The view offered by the artist is rather poetic. Her text has the form of fragments of a narration of what appears to be a story with no beginning and end. Haviarová’s sculptures seek to revive the social dimension of the material in the shadow of its function, history, and definition.