Inspired by the idea that a transmission broadcast into a closed society can instigate change, Trubkovich employs an image of the analogue signal as the unifying formal component to this body of work. The signal acts as the symbol for escape and desire, themes constant in Trubkovich’s investigati... Read more
Inspired by the idea that a transmission broadcast into a closed society can instigate change, Trubkovich employs an image of the analogue signal as the unifying formal component to this body of work. The signal acts as the symbol for escape and desire, themes constant in Trubkovich’s investigations and practice. The paintings, all self-portraits, accurately depict the blurred, disjointed and transitional images that occur when a video signal is paused. The results produce a flattening of the surface by presenting the pictorial space as a screen, suggesting that the subject is one step removed from reality. The artist paints himself in blurred images as a way to explore his own history, memory and identity while at the same time tackling the painters’ dilemma between the illusory conventions of figurative painting and the subjective nature of color and form in abstraction.
Because the analogue pause is always a unique grab, the accidental or intuitive nature of the freeze gesture, which selects or locks the image, references abstract expressionism via an electro magnetic filter. Further distancing the artist as subject in these self-portraits, the distortions of the pause purposely erase his identity, allowing the viewer to impose or project his or her own ideals, histories and memories onto the paintings. The distorted blankness of the subject illustrates the collective ambiguity of the post soviet generation that the artist belongs to.
