IN ŠEJKA’S ZONE

Abstract

The group Mediala was the framework of Leonid Šejka’s (1932-70) early artistic actions. After he separated from the group, he continued practicing various forms of art: paintings, performances, drawings and assemblages. Following the tradition of renaissance art, influenced by Leonardo, he wrote Tractate on Painting in 1964. Prior to this, in 1957, he wrote several novels in which he tried to explain the main concepts of his art: dump, city, depository and castle. Šejka believes that the true being of an object is discovered only after it loses its function, when discarded as useless. In the numerous drawings dating from mid fifties to mid sixties typical items of artist’s interest are represented: keys, locks, clamps, coats, parts hangers, string, needles and threads, guitars and pens, glasses, bottles, CADIS (quadratic form with the diagonals, which symbolizes the core, the navel of the world). Šejka created a collection of garbage in need to save everything, without any selection, in order to decipher the spirit of time. This process led the artist from the phase of dump to the phase of depository, where all the chosen objects are represented as existing in their own right. Gradually, he replaced renaissance perspective by two-dimensional representation in which objects are placed like words, in sequence, forming unique alphabet. Eventually Šejka disappears from his storage of objects, leaving a blank canvas in front of the observer, like an empty warehouse, just before he finds the path to the security of his castle.