Always Now
To explain the motif of Always Now, I would like to use the text of the exhibition of the same name last year, which was the first outcome of this long-term project.
Václav Kopecký has a long-standing interest in the oscillation of photography on the edge of time and space. The central motif of the series Always Now is the shape of a circle or sphere, which functions as an experimental model that can open up new, alternative worlds. A cyclist falls off his bicycle, a yacht crosses the horizon, film lights come on, again and again differently, always now.
That photography can stop time is obvious. But what happens if we start to layer and bend the separated samples of photographic time? Is that frozen and twisted photographic time different from ours? And doesn’t each photograph then hide its own, completely autonomous world?
Václav’s laconic phrase “Always Now” is an attempt to define the relationship between photography and time. He tries to capture these paradoxes in his sophisticated collages and assemblages. The circular cut-outs can be seen here as a kind of metaphor for the eye, while the original technical image in the shape of a rectangle (or square) is the result of machine vision. The two modes overlap in Václav’s works and intertwine into new models of space and time that refute their apparent singularity. Bubbles of time suddenly emerge alongside and behind each other, creating new, multiplied worlds that mirror reality in a way that defies the established rules of photography and the common perception of modern linear time. Flusser’s thesis of the magical primordialism of photography returns here, showing time not as a continuous, unstoppable plot, but as images that cluster and coalesce into ornaments and shapes.
The depicted reality thus unfolds into parallel “ifs” and “elsewheres”, into individual and fictional times and spaces. In the end, it is no longer a question of what we see exactly, but of the paths our vision takes in the process. The circle, which is here a symbol not only of seeing but also of consciousness, eventually abstracts into a sphere, an infinite sum of all possibilities that we will never see.
(text by Pavel Vančát, Berlinskej model – Always Now, 2022)
https://berlinskejmodel.cz/cs/vystavy/2022/always-now/
Always Now (untitled #1B)
46 x 61 cm | silver-gelatine b&w photography
2022
(.. two photographs from the same negative overlaid on top of each other. The central motif of the ship is replaced by a circular cut-out. One photograph frames the other. This creates a new reading of the original shot. Always Now is always now, when we stand in front of a photograph that seemingly shows the past, but always in the present moment. The photograph is a temporal paradox trapped in the image.)
Always Now (untitled #1A)
37 x 49 cm | silver-gelatine b&w photography
2022
(..the whole negative shows the ship manoeuvring off the coast. One selected photograph could capture the entire event at a crucial moment. My intention is to show the whole event in one picture. The idea is not to show the movement of the ship or the composition at sea, but to show how we perceive time in general. Time as a sequence of events, a moment is not a fraction of time, but a kind of time bubble... a moment is an event.)
Always Now (untitled #2A, #2B)
28,5 x 28,5 cm | silver-gelatine b&w photography
28,5 x 28,5 cm | silver-gelatine b&w photography
2022
Always Now (untitled #4A, #4B)
36 x 36 cm | silver-gelatine b&w photography
36 x 36 cm | silver-gelatine b&w photography
2022
(..two/three photographs from the same negative overlaid on top of each other.)
Always Now (untitled #3)41 x 41 cm | silver-gelatine b&w photography
2022
(..The contact print is overlaid and framed by one selected photograph from which the central motif is removed by a circular cut-out. The selected photograph frames the entire event. I am always thinking about the reading of photographs.. which create images in our eyes and minds every time we look at them.. )
Always Now (loop)
2023
(Video loop 3D model of a sphere and two surfaces. The sphere is the object - the event and the surfaces are the space. Everything is frozen in time and the whole situation rotates around its axis. There are infinitely many ways to look at what is happening around us. It depends on the point of view, where some things are better seen and others are obscured... the moment is fleeting. We're experiencing everything right now. Always Now)
Always Now (midnight blue 1-4)45 x 45 cm | silver-gelatine b&w photography, UV Print
four in a series.
2023
(..The black and white photographs are all from one frame of the negative. Sometimes it is a whole and a detail, other times it is two photo papers laid over each other and exposed under an enlarger at the same time. This creates a new perception of time between the diptych of the two images.. The schema overprinted over the two images supports a way of perceiving the meaning of this collage.)
Always Now (color #2, #3)60 x 80 cm | c-print
60 x 80 cm | c-print
2022
(.. like the schema)
Always Now (petrification)
60 x 80 cm | c-print
2023
(..The ball (a metaphor for the event) lies on a fossil stone. A fossil is an image of a time when there was no man on Earth and through these fossils we interpret a time that no one has experienced, but through this evidence we form a relationship to it and even an imagination of how the world might have looked different than it does right now..)
Always Now (wallpaper)variable dimensions.
2023
(..The ball is the central motif and the glass shards represent layers (of time, views, ..)
Always Now (schema)
70 x 100 cm | screen printing
2022