Artist biography
Radeen Machacek (Edmonton, Canada) makes paintings, drawings, sculptures, and performances. She tries to approach a wide range of subjects in a multi-layered manner while rejecting an objective truth and global cultural narratives, and engaging viewers in a way that is sometimes physical. Machacek believes in the idea that function follows form, and her work is an investigation into representations of, seemingly, concrete ages and situations as well as depictions and ideas that can only be realized in her mediums. Her work urges us to renegotiate being part of a reactive or, at times, artistic medium that comments on oppressing themes in our contemporary society.
With a conceptual approach, Machacek creates intense personal moments masterfully created by means of rules and omissions, acceptance and refusal, luring the viewer round and round in circles. Machacek’s work is a direct response to the surrounding environment, using her everyday experiences as a starting point; often, these are framed instances that would go unnoticed in their original context. By choosing mainly formal solutions, she tries to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations from her work.
Artist statement
By objectifying emotions and investigating the duality that develops over different interpretations, my artwork focuses on the dynamics between audience and artist. By examining the ambiguity and origination via retakes and variations, I create work -- with the help of physics and technology, not storytelling or metaphor -- that deals with the documentation of events and the question of how they can be presented.
My work does not reference recognizable forms. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretations become multifaceted. By utilizing abstraction, I create intense personal moments masterfully created by means of rules and omissions, acceptance and refusal, luring the viewer round and round in circles.
I create the daily, recognizable elements, an unprecedented situation in which viewers are confronted with the conditioning of their own perception and have to reconsider their biased position. My work never shows the complete structure, which results in me being able to easily imagine my own interpretation without being hindered by the art history that is presented.
By choosing mainly formal solutions, I try to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations. My work is an investigation into the representation of seemingly concrete ages and situations, as well as depictions and ideas that can only be realized within my mediums.