Lifesize Draft

2009 - Installation (Installation)

Szabolcs Kisspál

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Lifesize Draft is the second of two sculptures on a similar theme, the first one being Utopia Battery, (2008). The latter is also in an edition of 3, one of which is in the collection of the Ludwig Muzeum, Budapest. Although Lifesize Draft was made after Utopia Battery, Kisspal conceived it more or less at the same time and sees the two works as closely related. Both take as their central motifs the red flag. Whereas in Utopia Battery the flag unravels and the thread is coiled into spools as a direct result of the intervention of people in the room (the unravelling is activated by a motion sensor), in Lifesize Draft the flag is in a fixed almost completely unravelled state, the wool being in a giant ball. It is unclear therefore whether the flag is being unravelled – the communist régime deconstructed – or remade – a new utopia under construction. Within the installation there is a DVD of found footage of American citizens knitting, predominantly during the Second World War, although some footage is from the First World War, to help the war effort by making socks for the troops. Among those shown knitting are President Roosevelt and his wife. There is a sense of community that ought to be the fundamental basis of any model state but which was lacking in former Communist regimes. Kisspal thus appears tentatively to propose the possible reformulation of a social model which may or may not be Marxian. He refers to a recent revival of interest in Marx in Germany during the recent Financial crisis and state intervention in the banking industry as examples of a return to or interest in state control.

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Szabolcs Kisspál’s work engages with the social and political circumstances in which he lives and the rôle of the artist in society, particularly in the post-communist world. Working with photography, moving image, and sculpture, Kisspal’s work questions not only the legacy of Communism, but also the legacy of the recent failures of capitalism. Like many artists in former eastern Europe his work displays some ambivalence about the current situation as well as hope for a more structured and controlled continuing emancipation.

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Colors:

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• communism.n.01
• utopia.n.02
• war.n.01
• politics.n.01
• community.n.01
• economy.n.01