Inflow
28.06.2019 - 01.09.2019
Press release
From June 28 to September 1 the first personal exhibition in Russia by Daniel Zakh takes place in ASKERI GALLERY. Russian artist and sculptor, Zaha Hadid’s student, explores the boundaries between architecture, sculpture and visual arts, developing his personal method of making art through computer programming.
The discussion about shaping the space is crucial for Daniel Zakh’s art. In his works the artist focuses on searching for new ways of creating sculptures and on the idea of interrelation of two objects to each other and changing the object by another one. Zakh consider space as a field, filled with different forces interacting with each other. The sculpture is a result of such interaction of forces, which later starts to organize space around itself.
Exhibition's caption ‘Inflow' reflects the concept of Daniel Zakh’s sculpture shaping. This concept is based on the idea of continuous influence of invisible flows on the initial mass. Flows change it, show its spatial potential and reveal the sculpture itself.
The premiere exhibition includes three series of works. The main sculptural works 'Inflow' reflect the result of stimulated influence of forces on matter, imitating the shape of the rocks of the desert Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah (USA) or the White Desert (Egypt), which were formed over millions of years by nature itself. The works of 'Inflow Vertical' complement the idea of forming, focusing on the vertical plane. The idea of mass subtraction along complex spatial trajectories combines the 'Inflow' and 'Inflow Vertical' series, and their main difference is the direction of such trajectories and the number of flows used. Due to the difference in the initially laid forces, flows and the degree of their influence on matter, the viewer can see how the relief and silhouette of the object changes.
'Thinking about this series of sculptures, I imagine a cube of material that has experienced a relentless flow of forces. Following a set of spatial trajectories, such a flow begins to grind off the mass of the cube gradually, rid it of unnecessary elements and to show the sculpture,' says Daniel Zakh.
The series of wall sculptures 'Elastic Limit' continues the artist's reflections on the physics of forces that meet matter on their way and lead to different degrees of its compression and stretching. Here, instead of subtracting the mass, its deformation occurs. The initial volume of mass is in constant motion and reconfiguration, experiencing the continuous influence of waves. The immersion of the viewer into the space of non-relentless deformations is achieved due to the scale of the work, which allows you to feel the displacement of matter within one object. An abstract art of Gerhard Richter, with his signature "rubbed" strokes of paint served as aesthetic inspiration for the sculptor in this series.