joseph scissorhands: TARWUK: Mit dem Frosch zu schmusen, ist es unmöglich.

TARWUK - MRTISKLAAH_yrotsiH_detarraN_semoceB_htaerB_eht_erofeB_tnemoM_A, 2026 (detail)

This was my first encounter with the works of artists Bruno Pogačnik Tremow and Ivana Vukšić who work collectively together under the name TARWUK and who have their work represented in both public and private collections. The role of each in the creation of their artworks is not explained. The artists describe their collaboration as 'a ‘condition’ – a chosen state of existence that prioritises process over product, dissolution over fixed identity, and relation over singular authorship. Central to TARWUK’s practice is the concept of theatre – not as spectacle or illusion, but as a methodology for aesthetic expression.' They are a Yugoslav duo who are multi-disciplinary in their practice creating paintings, sculptures and installations. The two, both born in 1981 came of age during the Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s, where no doubt they would have witnessed and still have traces in their psyche of the evils of war and the horrors that men do to each other under such conditions, as well as the physical scars left on the landscape in the process. TARWUK's art bears a few traces of that trauma, and yet a sense of healing and hope too. It was the highly distinctive aesthetic of their paintings that drew my attention to them, which is figurative and appears to draw its inspiration from the whole pantheon of western art reflected in the elongated figures of El Greco, yet appears to be based on art of the Byzantine era too. There are also echoes of some of the greats of early 20th C. figurative paintings such as Balthus and the wonderful decoration and ornament of Gustav Klimt, who himself was influenced by the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna. This exhibition opens with an installation which the artists refer to as a 'harmonic percolator' in the upper gallery of White Cube Mason's Yard. It is a little austere based around rigid metal frameworks and elements of furniture, but warmed by the suggestion of the human presence through two dresses and a pair of shoes, as well as the duo's painted figurative elements on the back rests of the chairs. There is a small box like a maquette or miniature theatre set design housing two cut-out figures and sun-like form above and behind them. At both ends of the installation monitor screens displayed clips from old footage. On one screen a reel of 13 one-minute videos shot in the negative on the occasion of the new and full moons in 2024 has footage reminiscent of that of Battleship Potemkin that inspired Francis Bacon's screaming head paintings. The second monitor features a conversation piece in which Tremow and Vukšić discuss their ever-evolving collaboration in relation to drawing, the practice to which they always revert and anchors their nomadic artistic existence as they travel between their bases in New York and Croatia. Classical sculpture is usually a finished object occupying a defined space, TARWUK’s installations are designed to operate like transient stage sets – assembled from discarded parts, subject to rearrangement with each display. This moveable theatricality counters the usual language of the sculptural fixed form. The modernity of this installation seemed at odds with the duo's painterly output which is heavily influenced from the past. Descending the stairs to the lower galleries visitors are treated to a series of TARWUK's paintings, which I found to be even better when experienced in the actual than online, as you are able to take in the nuances of colour and muted tones as well as the painterly textures in ways that just aren't possible through the screen. The paintings have a Symbolist dreamlike feel and are presented like theatrical tableaux. As with most figurative paintings there is an implicit underlying narrative in the expressions painted onto faces and exaggerated bodily gestures. I enjoyed taking in the contrast of muted earthy colours against vivid, saturated oranges and yellows to enliven the picture surfaces as well as the painted pattern and ornament to enhance areas of the canvases. I like the fact that the traditional painting part of TARWUK's practice spills over into their contemporary installation work, softening and humanising it. It has been a while since I have been this inspired by contemporary painting.