In this paired group exhibition of faculty and alumni at the OSU Urban Arts Space in downtown Columbus, OH, I connected with Robert Ladislas Derr. Here is my wall panel text (the last two sentences are by Robert):
In an age of self-examination, what does it mean to be human, to be present in the world? Beyond a collection of organs to be checked up and fixed when broken, our experiences, desires, struggles, and dignified failures are scrutinized to assemble a fitter, happier existence. Like a damaged unit within a functioning system, the smoker or the overweight person becomes a liability, an eyesore, an inadequate or unpleasant prick in the fabric of social order. At first glance, Robert Ladislas Derr’s piece is absurd and confusing. Then, an intimacy forms: the struggling individual, however reluctantly, becomes relatable. Perseverance, exertion, and vulnerability grip us in our shared desire for achievement, and we find ourselves in an existential loop. The video conveys an experience of humanness that no chart or diagram could convey. Conversely, Vesna Jovanovic’s drawings stage disembodied and alienated body units. Like machine parts, the organs crawl and pick up senseless appendages while searching for their place in the world. Perhaps that is a world of experience, of phenomena, of choices. One may feel sympathy for these bodies, or frightened and repulsed by them, or curious and drawn to them. Together Derr and Jovanovic’s work present the body as something tangible rather than an abstracted media image filled with stereotypical irony. The palpable handlings enable a visceral connection to its organic function, where life and its struggles are intertwined.