Tags: artist | Cananda | profile

Prague has a lot going on in the way of creativity, and in this column we hope to show some of the stories behind the works, starting with P.R. Filip...

There are two themes to P. R. Filip's work that merge together as gracefully as OJ Simpson and the bloody glove. One is the body, the other the machine.

Combining the body with industrial imagery of electronic transformers and the like, the transposition puts the viewer in the position of security camera operator, reflecting upon humanities current state of surrender to the machinery of our miscontentmentor malcontent.

"I superimposed the body over the machinery to show the effects of the industrial upon the body, the present state of our life in this post-modern industrial society we all find ourselves trapped in."

A second theme in his works continues in that vein, drawing upon the familiarity of the television screen, showing us a reflection of the fragmented random images that program us with their incongruity, in a horizontal format reminiscent of primitive landscapes.

"It's like you're sitting down, watching TV, clicking the channels and noticing what you get; realizing that you're being fed all these different images in dispassionate order. That's what I'm after in my work." says Mr. Filip.

Born in Prague, he studied and grew up in Canada, where he also has had exhibitions, but mostly in a university setting. His recent showing at Radost is his first professional show and has been an acclaimed critical success. Most of the source of his creativity comes during the sketching stage, where the ideas form, and then applying these images to canvas, he focuses strictly on the technical aspect.

First he lays down the stripping effect, to suggest a video monitor, then in a free form manner, builds up the textures that give life to the bodies that float freely, almost surely unaware that they are witnessed by others. In this age of increasing population growth and global control, these images form a haunting look of things that are coming.