A Mountain of Fallen Monuments

In A Mountain of Fallen Monuments Linda Studená presents a series of collages combining drawing, photography and experimental camera-less processes. These works reference and appropriate shapes of public sculpture from former communist Czechoslovakia between 1969 and 1989, loosely termed as ‘normalisation’ abstraction. The collages aim to challenge the ideology of the style, opening new dialogues both personal and collective.

This exhibition is part of an ongoing interest in monuments as cultural anchors and the implications of objects serving ideological and aesthetic functions in the community. These collages experiment with notions of femininity, materiality and form, and reimagine alternative narratives for the historical sculptures they depict; repurposing their metaphysical potential by placing them in new contexts and in a different medium.

Memorial to the Dukla Heroes (Pomník dukelským hrdinům) by Milan Vácha (Prague 5, 1978), Lomnický štít, High Tatras late 1950’s

Two women (Dvě ženy) by Ľudmila Cvengrošová (Bratislava 2, 1986), mountain pine, late 1950’s

Flower (Květ) by Sylva Lacinová (Brno, 1972), High Tatras, late 1950’s

Lomnický štít 2634m #1, Tatra Mountains, late 1950’s

Lomnický štít 2634m #2, Tatra Mountains, late 1950’s

Ribbon (Stuha) by Zdeňka Fibichová (Prague 10, 1967), Krkonoše Mountains, summer 2019

Charcoal on Fabriano Artistico, chromogenic print, cyanotype on Saunders HP, aluminium panel, 50 cm x 50 cm.

A Mountain of Fallen Monuments, Tinning Street Presents, 2020