Marek Ther

"Marek Ther (b. 1977) currently studies under Vladimír Skrepl in the painting studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He cooperated this year with Jiří Skála on the project Microfiltration (Gallery Jelení); his latest work was exhibited in the group exhibition Casino (Universal NoD) and in an exhibition in the school’s studio.
Marek Ther plays out the tension between artificiality and the natural (his older works contrast animal fur, dead flies, fake fingernails and the ecological stamp Grüne Punkt). The cultural and social function of corporeality, which is shaped by the pop-culture industry and the mechanisms of media fame, is mixed with commonplace gestures and appearances.
Cosmetics of every kind — enhancing colors and shapes (of clothing, skin, hair) — are an effective strategem in Ther’s battle against everyday filth. His attitude reveals symptoms of Warholian paranoia; even the photograph Krásná propiska (Beautiful Pen) features a carefully composed blot of muck intended to emphasize specific hygienic habits. Maria Callas, the legendary Bel Canto opera star, has become more than just an artistic alter ego for Marek Ther. The series of photographs in which Ther poses as Callas in front of her Paris home parallels his video work in which a hypothetical encounter takes place between Callas and Audrey Hepburn in the backseat of a car as it cruises slowly through the city. (A list of the clothes and cosmetics used in the video runs across the screen.) Marek Ther is working on a project of fictitious interviews with the students of Maria Callas, and very soon he will begin to learn how to sing.
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01.04.2001