On the 12th of April 2022, BIS ART GALLERY presented a solo exhibition of artist Vangranda entitled «Finding a Choice. Or Tales of a Yellow Duck», dedicated to the question of freedom, choice, the search for a path and the possibility of transformation.
The artistic expression of Vangranda is characterised by the continual creation of her own world in her paintings, with characters that shift from one work to the next, undergoing spiritual and physical transformations. In her pictorial world, human reality and a transcendental dimension that cannot be grasped empirically exist side by side.
«Tales of the Yellow Duck» narrates the existence of two worlds where the central figure is not a physical image but a certain particle whose presence can be discerned through hidden symbols. The invisible particle aspires from its transcendent state to be «incarnated» in the human world.
The narrative of the exhibition is built on the different stages of the particle’s metamorphosis, striving to break into physical space, to cognise it. What is the aim of this transformation? And what is its price?
This striving is caused by the uniqueness of human beings who, in one way or another, wish to find the possibility of choice. According to the principle of existential philosophy, it is considered that man can understand his existence, freedom and power only in critical, borderline situations. The particle, too, in order to achieve catharsis, must go through a process of purification, endure trials and hardships. It experiences agony, loss of values, foggy delirium together with the real characters, looking at the world through their eyes.
The yellow duck in Vangranda’s paintings is a silent narrator, connecting the material and the transcendent. As it tells the viewer different stories, it empowers each person to make his or her own decision. By gaining choice, one gains freedom — sometimes naive, but always as desirable as the tales of a small, yellow duck.
