In November 2021, Czech artist Adéla Janská opened her solo show at IOMO Gallery in Bucharest, the chance not only to enjoy her work, but her charming presence as well. She was so kind to give feedback to my questionnaire and illustrate it with some images from her studio.
Sibi-Bogdan Teodorescu: Your work has been attached to a certain form of feminism, according to sources as thesomethingmachine.com, for instance; do you identify with? In my opinion your pictures are more of a synthetic image of the woman as an icon or an emblem, since their body recall rather a sort of reshaping into something close to sculpture and patterns.
Adéla Janská: I cannot say that I have been identifying with it. To be honest, if is not so essential for me. On one side, it is interesting to observe how my work is interpreted and at which context it is involved. On the other hand, the crucial thing is my activity at the studio. For me, the process is more important than it's interpretation. Hence, I accept it as a reality.
S-BT: Most of your characters are represented in frontal postures, which is typical to a religious, representation in general, but not exclusively. I also understand a sublimation of their sexuality, a very subtle, yet attractive one.
AJ: Perhaps I would Agree. Some women should impress as untouchable, eternally and maybe provocatively. Each of them has her own story, different psyche and character. An important role is played by a pose, expression, eyes, porcelain textures, mask, attribute, etc. Nevertheless, I cannot say that I have a comprehensive conception, which I keep. I work with a woman's identity as a woman in general, together with my own experience as a woman in particular. This is essential. The form appears in time.
S-BT: I would say your technique is close to the skillful use of artifices which make your paintings look like an adjustment between a skillful and an easy way to make an image. You apply some stencils like they used to do it with cinema posters a while ago to which you add some vigorous strikes, transforming all in a particular way. Your paintings reach the limit of ruse and ingenuity.
AJ: It is more or less a technical question. What is important for me was mentioned in my last answer. Of course, I make a choice of the appropriate tools in order to reach my goals. In spite of it, I strive in order my paintings to be always surprising in the result. I do not like to risk at the level of a prescribed certainty. I have my printings the offer me what they require, which usually happens.
S-BT: One of your works you exhibited in Bucharest was not a woman and that body is oriented in a different way. At a first sight you don't realize it's something else. Is that just a hazard, or you were searching for something else?
AJ: Yes, one man body, which was exceptional. Originally, I wanted to create a pair, man and woman, as their dialogue. However, I finally realized that the man's look to the spectator was so intensive that a further dialogue would be superfluous.
S-BT: What is your rapport, your position with/ before the history of art? There is some classical approach on most of the representations you touch on: young, beautiful bodies and faces, steady postures, elegant allures.
AJ: My view was changed from a fascination to an identification, and it is rather abstract. The names are not important, but the contact.
S-BT: The colors that you use add another feature to a poster-like image. They are striking, easy to notice, very vibrant. Your look are close to this iconic, magazine-wise, if I may, appearance. What is your personal connection with these characters you paint?
AJ: The simplicity in my paintings is not an abbreviation, My goal is not to catch. I devote my energy to the essence. If it looks for somebody as an advertisement, then it is a spectator's reflection, but not mine.
S-BT: What were the most important steps in your development?
AJ: Each single item is important, especially a routine and a permanent activity.
S-BT: What about selling (your) art? Is this material dimension important in the way you find your ideas?
AJ: I would not say it is this way. I make oppositely efforts to pay attention as concerns successor and “ requirements " from the point of view of the sale.
S-BT: Is there a routine of working? How can you manage time?
AJ: I have been working almost every day. The painting fills up my time. It is for me
still very attractive that I need to think as well as to be bored. The painting is for me
a way of life.
S-BT: The public is an important part of a work of art in the sense it depends on how one sees a piece or another, and how reactions can complete the work, seen as a transfer of ideas and feelings. How do you see your public?
AJ: Frankly speaking, I do not perceive the public. I work like there is no public. I do not reflect it. It is certainly wonderful when the viewer it addressed by which the authentic dialogue starts which make him/her into an internal move. The art is so. I am also a viewer of my own paintings.
S-BT: How often do you take a look of what other artists do around you? Do they influence you in a way or another? A lot of young artists are very eager to success. Isn't it a bit disturbing?
AJ: In the past, I was Influenced by various artists and I think it is natural. However, not in the sense of a success. I was interested how the painters make their works and whether on not I am able to do it in the same way and on the same standards. Today, I am watching the contemporary paintings with an interest, but I am separated from any influence or, at least those the be conscious. Reversely, I am willing to have no pre-image of my future pictures. My purpose was always to approach to paintings as they are, to understand them, to full a clairvoyance, to lose it and again to find it. The success is too overvalued.
S-BT: As a woman artist do you feel things are very different in terms of reception?
AJ: With no doubts, I am lucky in these times. I could study,I can freely work, then make decisions and to be accepted. Moreover, I like to be isolated and concentrated.
S-BT: In an equitable view we consider different forms of art as one and the same, regarding relevance, if I may. Nonetheless, in particular situations music or film are stated as better (as more efficient, direct or powerful) because more complete or straightforward. What point of view do you share?
AJ: I guess that music and movies represent something which acts in a real time and in the move, which is evident, given. You can see it, have it and you going together with it in time. I think that the picture is much more complicated, because there is no leading process. You must arrange it internationally and unconsciously of the presence in front of the picture and your view. All is static and the move acts only covertly. For me it is quite perfect, but it is need not be so easy for all.
S-BT: If you could, would you change painting for another medium?
AJ: No. have no idea to what it would mean to employ other media. I have just the experience with paintings. Perhaps it might no be too different, but I am satisfied with my experience. So far it is the process for all my life. The painting it for me so crucial that I have not been even drawing.
S-BT: Do you feel more free as an artist, compared for example with people working in front of a desk or other categories of workers?
AJ: I feel free not because to be an artist, but because I am lucky that I can do what makes me happy and what determines me.
S-BT: Was everything said or done?
AJ: Certainly not!
S-BT: Your style looks so clear and easy to define at a first sight, perhaps some are thinking is not so difficult to mimic. Do you feel a certain concern about it?
AJ: No, I believe that the imitation is a trap.
S-BT: They say most of the artists are difficult to live with, is this as general as they say?
AJ: I think it is not easy to live with somebody who is full involved in something. You are entering to the relationship and it need not be always quite easy. I am so lucky that my closest respect and support my fervor for painting.
S-BT: In your opinion what push people in doing and consuming art? Is the fear of death, the search of a better reason to live, etc?
AJ: I think it is mysterious. An artist is like an accelerator who gives to general activities and phenomena, which are presents in the world, the form in a given time. Maybe one could say that an artist conserve time, activities and themes in a certain sense. Then the viewer can open them at any future time, measured in years, centuries, millennia. You can watch the artistic work," open “ them and enter into a dialogue. with them. This is an immortality which can surround you, but it does not take you away from the death or from the fear of the death.
S-BT: From a moral point of view, whatever morality would mean, are artists other than the rest?
AJ: People are either moral or immoral. It depends on the individuals, but I am not sure whether or not the artistic activity make you a better human.
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