02.03 → 03.04
There is an engagement in the spiritual, social, and aesthetic dialogues of today as ZAK fuses in his art geopolitics, human rights and ideological issues.
In his new series 'The Laws of Chaos & the End of Illusion' ZAK Kaghado returns to us with another mind provoking exhibition which depicts his vision on the current global situation effecting us all. The exhibition will consist of Installations which the artist has created from real objects of authority introducing a historical bridge with the ancient and modern. In some works he mixes hammered-copper historical emblems onto poly-carbonate military issued shields, in other works he hand sharpens rubber police-sticks and engraves on to them. He also deconstructs camouflage uniforms into parts. The whole process is more of a primal one in a time where communication is super-sonic and cultures are clashing as never before in history. Alongside the installations, are snap shots of abstract scenes of chaos.
His installation titled 'The Investment in Reality' symbolizes victims of a suicide-bomb attack in any downtown city. His work'Above the Battleground' will give you a feeling of what it may really feel like to be in the chaos of a riot. 'The Incorruptible Body' a photo which scrapes the feeling of being violated. Kaghado has also introduced to his works a new direction of multi-layered destructed canvas works.
Similarly, one can see a clear lineage with his earlier body of work from 2009 which included burnt flags, crosses, canvases with a strong social context as he was trying to reach an intellectual understanding of such actions and what it may arouse inside. The challenge is to convey that feeling genuinely. The technical challenge is to control the process as the idea of burning something naturally without containment is not the objective, “I am enflaming my installations and canvases for a very specific reason, so I want to be able to control and confine it as much as possible. In general, fire as a substance, reacts and destroys more than it transforms, it has a mysterious energy and force which is hypnotizing, its overlaying colors, the heat and sound it produces all inspires me".The work of ZAK is in fact powerfully political and has an apocalyptic mood but at the same time it is non confrontational, his art explores the power and the authority of governing societies, and the absurdism of the status quo in the context of our ‘New Society’.
"What is happening is chaotic and painful but from the start I plan with no emotions, like the quality of a brutal uprising that is absolutely rational. I want to create an obscurity from the interior to the surface. The past is still present and I believe that for every action there is a reaction equal to it by force or possibly, even greater"
Alongside his art, ZAK is well known for his curating projects for the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Museum Moscow, Center for Contemporary Arts, The National Gallery of Fine Arts Amman Jordan, 'MSK Eastside' Gallery, 'K35' and others.
ZAK Kaghado, was born in the USA and is based in Moscow, Russia. He has a Master’s Degree in International Communications / Political Science.
The Laws of Chaos & the End of Illusion' will be exhibited at the second space of MSK Eastside Gallery which has opened recently this year on Leontyevskiy lane in Moscow central.
Solo Exhibition | Mixed Media , Installations , Photography