Andrew Kreps Gallery is please to present Ján Manuska’s third solo exhibition in the gallery. Comprised of film, and sculptural installation the show builds upon the deconstruction of self or identity within a narrative that has no temporal or spatial specificity.

The show opens with Reflection, a sculptural installation created built with pieces of furniture that have been assembled and stacked, and cut into two long panels, creating a narrow passageway between the two, into which a film, in two parts, is projected.

In the first part of the film, two characters are trading the roles of narrator and observer by speaking to and for each other, and describing each other’s behaviors in real-time:

Actor: Have you been there?? Actress: He said after a while Actress: Yes, I was. And you? Actor: She answered.

The second part of this film is concerned with two men, who interact with each other on the basis of shared associations but without the ability to specify any singular individuals and dialog is enacted without a single concrete pronoun. In the end it is a misunderstanding that acts as both punch line and Eureka moment, bringing the two parts of the film together.

The second part of the show is the sculpture Someone Else?, a line of objects into which a narrative and descriptive drawings have been etched, each cup and ceramic object acting as character, script, and storyboard simultaneously. The plain cups throughout are meant as pauses in the dialog or hesitations from the ‘actors’ and create a specific pace to the reading of the open-ended narrative.

Ján Manuska has shown extensively internationally with solo shows at the Kunsthalle Basel, Frankfurter Kunstverein, and Meyer Riegger Galerie in Karlsruhe and has been included in group shows at the Tel Aviv Art Museum, and was the representative for the Czech Pavilion at the Venice Bieniale in 2005.

The artist would like to thank the following:

Cast: John Comer, Charlotte Fairman, Matthew Blood Smyth, Brian Caspe, Amy Huck Singing: Charlotte Fairman Photography: Michal Cerny Sound: Radim Hladik Editing: Ondrej Vavrecka Post-production: Jaromir Pesr/ i/o post, Prague Executive Producer: Punkfilm, Prague