INTERSUBJECTIVITY DIALOGUES FROM THE ‘ANOTHER SHORE’ SERIES BY LANA STALNAYA
Written by David Knoll
5/1/2023
If each EGO has its “second EGO”, a reflection twin, then the latter should hold a special place in reality structure. If we shove off the familiar and understandable things, and trust black water, it will be able to bring us to another shore - the Shore of the Hidden and Unknowable.
In the series of art “Another Shore” (2022), modern artist Lana Stalnaya addresses the themes of Ego and Other one, physical being and memory, fear, hope, vulnerability, and so on. Her new project invites the audience to experience the versatility of the feeling of freedom facing totally unknown abyss of the past, present and future, presented in the eight novels.
The picture “What happened, what is happening, what will happen” tells us: time does not exist, or, more exactly, it is impossible to distinguish the past from the present, and the present from the future, since one copies another, and we find ourselves in a closed world of similarities. Being extracted from historical and everyday reality specifics, bodies catch the reflections of "eternity" and are seen as the part of the universal chronotopos. Women's bodies captured in motion look like frozen sculptures. The "Another shore" storylines captivate the audience with the silent shrillness impression made by the "frozen" moment. Contrast black-and-white colour grade and clarity of geometric shapes provide an additional timelessness connotation in all series.
The series of oil paintings "Another Shore" is a gentle art experiment that transcends the genre boundaries which interactive meaningful dynamism is drown by the viewer closely looking at the Other. Female bodies, geometric shapes of the black sea and bright red inserts serve as an interlink between me and creatures hiding on another shore. I cannot get inside them, but we can exist together and empathize with each other.
A visual drama appears in front of me. Stalnaya's female characters are always presented from backside, "without face". The sight dualize. On the one hand, the viewer is forced to accept the character's mind, no matter how incomprehensible it may feel, and looks in an unknown direction. On the other hand, this is an opportunity for everyone to look at himself through a different lens, and especially at his "dark" side, which is usually neglected. To look through the visualized "Another one" as the character's twin and himself at the same time. The artist emphasizes this twin pattern herself, if you look more closely, by coupling female characters or geometric shapes.
Hiding the face in this regard corresponds to the logic of night fantasy, and awakens desire and fantasies inside us as well. Ultimately, the impossibility of looking in the picture as in a mirror emphasizes the challenge of self-identification, casting doubt on the Ego intelligibility as a whole. Ego is faced with the great mystery of being, which is not given to comprehend, and therefore becomes even more attractive. Pictures of the "Another Shore" are seducting.
Lana Stalnaya discovers the impossibility of the personal self-identity and the presence in the world of someone other/Anther, which cannot be possessed, but may be carefully touched with a glance. The existential "failure" inside human Ego turns out to be a door to Another, an approach to dialogue and intersubjectivity. The superficially gloomy "Other Shore" suddenly becomes full of hope and life glory next to Another kaleidoscope of human life.
David Knoll has published widely on international modernism and in 2011 was a Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow. From 2017-21, in addition to his role in the department, he served as Curator in Charge of the Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art and now sits on the Advisory Committee. David holds a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen.
