BESTIJARIJ - BESTIJARIJ VENECIJANSKIH KANALA / BESTIARIUM - BESTIARIUM OF THE CANALS OF VENICE

  

-->

                                            PRIPITOMLJENA ZVJERAD

                                            Ciklus slika Danijela Srdareva

  Razigrana maštovitost i crtačka opuštenost Danijela Srdareva nalaze mogućnost izraza u brojnim medijima, u raznim modifikacijama, u svakovrsnim emanacijama. Njegovo djelo i djelovanje najprije smo upoznali u opremama knjiga i časopisa, u ilustracijama i publikacijama namijenjenima dječjem uzrastu ili pedagoško-didaktičkoj djelatnosti, ali je u svim tim, inače primijenjenim i kontekstom obavezujućim zadatcima, on uvijek uspijevao očuvati vlastitu individualnu notu i, dapače, nametnuti jasan otisak specifičnog kreativnog uloga. Kao jednu od bitnih karakteristika njegova rada zamijetili smo potrebu nadmašivanja ograničenja kadra, gotovo nagonski izazov relativiziranja zadanoga okvira, neophodnost da crtom i mrljom ide preko rubova papira ili kartona. Naime, bujnost i “uskipjelost” rukopisa kao da izaziva prevršavanje mjere, opkoračenje formata, pretakanje ili prelijevanje nakupljene energije iz sloja u sloj, iz jedne površine u drugu.

  Osjetljiv na tvarnost korištene građe i upotrebljenih sredstava mladi umjetnik varira tehnike i podloge, a posebno se rado koristi hrapavim i prozirnim površinama, kako bi kroz njihovo povezivanje ostvario dvostrukost učinka, razabiranje donjih obrisa i linearnog klupka kroz propusnu svjetlosnu membranu gornje plohe. Osim toga često uspješno miješa slikarske, crtačke i grafičke sastojke, na istome djelu nanosi vlastoručne poteze i dijelove otisnutih listova. Metričku raznovrsnost povremeno nadopunjuje i “kinetičkom” kombinatorikom, poliptihalnim ansamblima namijenjenima gledateljima da po volji ludički variraju ponuđene elemente, da ih aleatorički prekomponiraju i njima grade nov i drugačiji poredak okupljenih čestica. Na dosadašnjim izložbama i ostvarenjima pokazao je nemalu slobodu i dosjetljivost radnih programa i izvedenih rješenja, ali nipošto nije žrtvovao iskonska svojstva urođenog crtačkog i grafičkog senzibiliteta.

  Slikarski ciklus nazvan “Bestijarij” izrazita je potvrda njegove imaginativne i izvedbene specifičnosti. Motivika je naizgled bliska infantilnoj fantaziji, ali pruža priliku za prave crtačke i materičko-tehničke efekte, za uspješan spoj prisnosti i vještine, lakoće i iskustvenosti. Sam odabir teme nužno ima i eruditsku, transhistorijsku, gotovo citatnu podlogu, to više što je odabrano životinjstvo izričito situirano u mletački, povijesno zasićeni kontekst. Ne zaboravljamo da je Venecija grad svetog Marka koji simbolizira lav, da je u tom gradu Pietro Longhi još u XVIII. stoljeću fiksirao egzotični plijen, tromi korpus uhvaćenog nosoroga, a da u mutnim vodama kanala možemo i smijemo zamišljati najrazličitija čudovišta.

  Danijel Srdarev, dakako, ne odolijeva napasti zamišljanja upravo takvih monstruoznih bića, pa evocira “Gmaza iz Canala Grande”, izduženu repatu spodobu što pluta između usađenih stupova za vezivanje gondola. S razlogom slikar ne može izmaknuti ni napasti slijeđenja Longhijeva presedana, pa slika “ARRRR” predstavlja njegovu verziju nosoroga, razjapljenih žvala zbog rike. Dakako, lav nije mogao izostati, a predstavljen je u radu “AUVAAARRR (U Venecijanskom vrtu)”. Biranom društvu se pridružuje “Krokodil kod Peggy Guggenheim”, a slijede ga u stopu spodobe poput narvala ili nilskog konja na slici “Common Ground” te lika koji kao da kombinira reptilska i sisavačka svojstva, a okrštenog “UF”. Ovim slikama većih dimenzija pridružuje se niz drugih radova na papiru, obilježenih također znakovima venecijanske provenijencije (“Dorsoduro”), ali i karakterističnim ritmovima izmjene mrlja i slova, linearnih mrežišta i dekorativnih tokova, a sve s posebnom osjetljivošću za pozadinu, podlogu, smećkastu hrapavu podlogu, koja nužno izbija iza i ispod svake predstavljene figure.

   Animalia Danijela Srdareva tretira uglavnom okrutne, proždrljive, zastrašujuće moćne i prijeteće zastupnike faune. Nije slučajno ni što je nekoliko naslova onomatopejski obilježeno, upućujući na njihovo glasanje od kojega bi se trebala lediti krv u žilama. Pri njihovu predstavljanju dominiraju ralje i žvale, šiljati rogovi i zašiljeni zubi, oštre kandže i bodljikave ljuske, nakostriješena griva i opasno upereni repovi. Ali sve je to nemalo ironijom začinjeno i gotovo nježnim oblikovanjem pripitomljeno. Autorov duktus očituje se u istančanom staccatu, u odmjerenom nizanju trokutića i rombova, u organičkom redanju zareza i crtica, u sustavnoj razmjeni tamnih i svijetlih pojaseva, u spretnoj interpolaciji mehanički otiskivanih djelova. Jednom riječju, u sposobnosti ludičkog asimiliranja fantastične ikonike i snazi preobrazbe neobičnoga u blisko – a što je upravo suprotno konvencionalnim očekivanjima.

                                                                                                      Tonko Maroević   

                                                          TAMED BEASTS

                                         A series of paintings by Danijel Srdarev

 Danijel Srdarev’s playful vision and relaxed drawings are expressed in numerous media, in different modifications, in a multitude of emanations. We were first acquainted with his work in images for books and magazines, in illustrations and publications aimed at children, or pedagogical-didactic activity. Within all these applied and contextual tasks he managed to maintain his own individual note, and impose his own print of a specific creative investment. We noticed that a major attribute of his work is a need to surpass the limitations of the composition, an almost instinctive challenge of relativizing the given frame, a necessity to place the line and the stain over the edges of the paper of cardboard. The volume and the “fizzing” of the manuscript seems to provoke the overreaction, going around the format, pouring or overflow of collected energy from layer to layer, from one surface to another.

 The young artist, sensitive to the material and resources used, varies between techniques and bases, and he readily uses rough and transparent surfaces to, through connecting them, create a duality of effect, noting the bottom contours and linear ball through the transparent light membrane of the top layer. Besides that, he often successfully mixes the ingredients of painting, drawing and graphics; uses a same part to apply his own hand and parts of printed sheets. Sometimes he completes the metric diversity with “kinetic” combinations, polyptych ensembles meant for the viewers to ludically vary the offered elements, to recompose them aleatorically and to use them to build new and different structures of the gathered particles. So far his exhibits have shown great freedom and ingenuity of work programs and final solutions, but he has in no way sacrificed the primal properties of inborn drawing and graphic sensibilities.

 The painting series called “Bestiarium” is a remarkable confirmation of his imaginational and finalization uniqueness. The motives are at first sight close to an infantile fantasy, but they give the opportunity for real drawing and material-technical effects; for a successful combination of closeness and skill, easiness and experience. The selection of the topic has to have a scholarly, trans-historical, an almost quotable base, all the more because the selected animalism is situated in the historically saturated Venetian context. We shouldn’t forget that Venice is the town of St. Mark, who is symbolized by a lion; that Pietro Longhi back in the XVIII century set up exotic prey – an inert body of a captured rhino; and we can and may imagine all sorts of monsters.

 Danijel Srdarev, of course, cannot resist attacking the very images of such monstrous creatures, so he evokes “The Dragon from Canal Grande”, an elongated tailed creature which floats amongst the poles for tying up gondolas. The artist cannot evade or attack the following of Longhi’s precedent, thus the painting “ARRRR” represents his version of the rhino, with its mouth open in a roar. Of course, the lion couldn’t have been left out, and it’s represented in the piece “AUVAAARRR (In Venetian Garden)”. In this selected company is also “The crocodile at Peggy Guggenheim’s”, and it’s followed by creatures like narwhals or a hippo in “Common Ground”, and a character which combines the properties of a reptile and mammal, named “UF”. These larger paintings are joined by other works on paper, also marked by signs of Venetian provenance (“Dorsoduro”), but also characteristic rhythms of alternating between stains and letters, linear nettings and decorative streams, and all with a special sensitivity for background, base, brownish rough base which necessarily breaks out from behind and under every presented form.

  Danijel Srdarev’s Animalia mostly treats the cruel, hungry, frightening, mighty and threatening representatives of the fauna. It is not an accident that several of the titles are onomatopoeic, which suggests the sound which should freeze one in place. The main features of the creatures are jaws and mouths, pointy horns and sharp teeth, sharp claws and spiky scales, bristled mane and dangerously pointing tails. But it is all flavoured with irony and tamed with almost gentle shaping. The author’s ductus is apparent in the aesthetic staccato, in the measured lines of triangles and rhombuses, in the organic lines of commas and hyphens, in a systematic exchange of dark and light zones, in a skillful interpolation of mechanically printed parts. In a word, in the ability to ludically assimilate the fantastic imagery and the strength of transforming the unusual to close – this is the opposite of conventional expectations.

                                                                                                      Tonko Maroević 


photo by: Danko Stjepanović