Rastislav Podhorský: The Possibilities of the Palm

Where?

• Gallery Nová Vlna

  • Kukučínova 718, NOE Building, Merina Complex, Trenčín, Slovakia 911 01

When?

• Duration: 20.3. – 2.5.2025 

Curator: 

• Miroslava Urbanová

 

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Curatorial Text for the Exhibition

Rastislav Podhorský:  The Possibilities of the Palm

Hands and gestures are a highly expressive means of nonverbal communication, a more or less conscious manifestation of emotions that we often cannot immediately articulate through language. The palm is the most fascinating part of the hand – full of folds to which we attribute fateful meanings, a place of symbolically charged wounds, an epicenter of tenderness or potential threat. In English, "palm" refers both to the palm of the hand and to the palm tree. But what are the other, non-etymological possibilities of the palm in the images of Rastislav Podhorský?

The presented series of paintings is united not only by the theme of the solo male figure but also by a peculiar atmosphere, an unclear sequence of events, and the aforementioned hand gestures. Podhorský's painting draws from both the visual and spiritual tradition of what we call Western art, as well as from its subversive disruptions by other authors. His paintings exist within an extensive network of more or less readable chains of references, yet their mood is tangible to everyone in its contours. The transgression of the ordinary, the mundane, happens in a very unspectacular way – it is tantalizing and subtle, like the delicate movement of a butterfly’s wings on the nape of the neck. At the same time, the author approaches it with a certain dose of humility and modesty – qualities that we primarily associate with religious discourse. In his 2024 book of the same name, Slavoj Žižek ponders the possibility of Christian atheism – after the hijacking of the Christian image by the radical right, which programmatically ignores its fundamental value of equality. Like Nietzsche, Žižek considers God to be dead, but at the same time, one who entrusts people with the responsibility for freedom and equality in their own hands. Do not take this as the beginning of a joke but as a space for imagination: What, then, connects Podhorský, Nietzsche, and Žižek?

Podhorský’s male figures are not sovereign, universal subjects, nor radiant examples worthy of following. They seem somewhat lost, solitary, alienated – liminal subjects on the threshold. Their hunched bodies, engrossed in an ambiguous activity, come to the forefront. It is unclear whether they are in deep crisis, or if their masculinity is – reduced to an unholy halo of stubble from a freshly shaved beard. A bell or a palm in Podhorský’s paintings no longer primarily function as emblematic symbols of victory or peace, and a beard is no longer merely a sign of wisdom or experience. In the context and contact with these figures, their presence raises questions – is something missing from them? Are we overlooking something more important, something still unspoken, unarticulated – even on a spiritual level? Podhorský approaches figures and objects on the pictorial surface both painterly and sculpturally – using different techniques and handwriting to subtract and add mass, which does not remain an empty vessel but speaks primarily about the interior. He materializes the invisible choice before which they stand – somewhat shyly and awkwardly, but at crucial crossroads – not choosing between heroism and villainy in a theatrical form, but through fragments of everyday life, composing their own, much more complex narrative. The possibilities of the palm remain open, and the palm itself remains an open possibility – it only needs to be watered from time to time. 

 

Miroslava Urbanová

 

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