The Harvard Square Business Association, in partnership with Intercontinental Management and artist Yolanda He Yang, is pleased to present the latest exhibit at the 25/8 artspace project located at 2 Linden Street in Harvard Square.
Julia Csekö’s solo exhibition Straight from the Heart – The Rant Series, is currently on view through October 28, 2024. This solo exhibition was selected from Behind VA Shadows’ ongoing Call for Exhibition Proposals Series, which supports working artists in museums, galleries, and other non-profit art and cultural organizations.
Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association, commented, “We are delighted to collaborate again with Intercontinental Management and Yolanda He Yang on this compelling art installation. Since its inception last year, the popup gallery provides an opportunity for reflection and discussion, for which Harvard Square is known. We are grateful for community partners, like Intercontinental, who recognize the value of local artists, welcoming them to share their gifts, thereby enhancing the pedestrian experience in the Square.”
The exhibition showcases a series of large-format paintings, stemming from the artist’s experience working as a Visitor Assistant (VA) at the ICA/Boston. Created in 2016, the series of works reflects on the constant struggles and paradoxes faced by an emerging artist and perhaps true of all artists. Through an anecdotal yet philosophical lens, the exhibition delves into the push and pull relationships between artmaking and sustaining an artmaking life.
In the exhibition, the textual works unfold in a sequence, progressing as the background color changes from black to silver and then to gold. These thought pieces are products of “dead time” spent working at an art museum; when the work space becomes quiet, empty, and unstimulating, the creative mind goes on a half-coerced and half-voluntary journey of reflection. In Csekö’s case, the predicament looms large: the deep enjoyment in artmaking pulls her in while the extreme hardship of sustaining a creative life pushes her away. The polarizing frustration reaches a raw, emotional intensity in the first part of the exhibition, signified by the stark contrast between white text and black background. Here, the artist assumes an alter ego and speaks as an art piece, confronting viewers with this rhetorical question, “Why insist on such unstable lifestyle?” The clarity and precision of the text also juxtapose with the messy and complex human experiences, a result of brutal editing and meticulous execution.
The quest goes on as the voice tries to find an answer through further introspection on the why and how of being on this path. Moving onto the works with silver backgrounds, the legibility of text dims as the background color constantly interferes with reflections, reluctantly revealing the distant memory of artistic inspiration. The literary lens soon becomes wider and longer, shifting scale and perspective to grasp the concept of goodness and beauty. The golden background, according to the artist, references the genesis of gold, being stardust from the celestial bodies. In this context, the existential crisis of an artist gradually dissolves, breaking free from the human condition and limitation to embrace the abstract, the inexplicable, and the magnificent.
In retrospect, this painting series stands as one episode of Csekö’s ongoing engagement with textual art, albeit a profound and rare case of foregrounding her personal voice. Responding to the long history of painting, she chose text as her method because of the room it allows for imagination and interpretation. Nonetheless, her approach is deliberate with the closely crafted hard-edged characters in order to maintain the painterly and gestural quality of painting. While Csekö is currently able to pursue a full-time career as an artist, she is unsure about whether it is possible to achieve a balance within the push and pull, an almost love-hate relationship with art, in this capitalist system. Still, the struggle is relevant and lies closely to the work of Behind VA Shadows in finding an alternative by carving out the space for recognition and celebration of fellow artists and creatives.
Straight from the Heart – The Rant series works through the difficulty and frustration encountered in artmaking, acknowledging their existence but not dwelling on it. The exhibition presents hope that we can all find our ways to beauty and keep going for the right reason.