Pavel Tichoň
Icing of a Crazy Pasty Chef No. 13 , mixed media on canvas, 60 x 50 cm, 2010
Because There is Always Something Good in Foodbag , mixed media on canvas, 180 x 120 cm, 2007
IT, 2007 , mixed media on canvas, 180 x 120 cm
Pavel Tichoň
Pavel Tichoň (born in 1980) is familiar with the principles of absurdity and disbelief in his work. He reacts immediately to situational and objective stimuli in his environment, giving them new definitions and contexts. The spectrum of his work varies from ironical puns to chimerical visions; he mixes humour with phobia. The remarkable mute videos by Tichoň, which are very short (1 minute maximum) make the slowed-down reality melt and transposes it into a dream world. Tichon recreates the contemporary symbols (Tesco, Dukovany), classical art (H. Bosch), regional language forms (Kroj), and mascots of postproduction (Jahoda) etc, into fantastical configurations of the “world below the surface” or the “world behind the curtain”. The series of pictures from the Netherlands tackles selectively, in form of a photographic survey (the best 100/the best of…) two groups of motifs – front yards and cemeteries, holiday destinations and commemorative places that people create “instead of their reality”. In the process of defining his painting, there features an advertisement for a paid model (Šílení/Craze), and a fully acknowledged anti-formal, uncontrolled gesture (Polevy bláznivého cukráře /Icing of a crazy pastry-cook). Displaying volatility between content and form is where Tichon feels at ease and, in fact, is what defines his artistic method.