The Ready-Made And The Question Of The Fabrication Of Objects And Subjects - Critical Essay

Afterimage, Jan, 2001 by Suzana Milevska

Such clashes of meaning place strong emphasis on the many absurdities in social, cultural and political life in Macedonia. According to Vangeli, the only way to find meaning is through the mystical belief in redemption that does not depend on ephemeral or profane concepts of tragedy. While criticizing the social and cultural conflicts (the example of turning the church first into a mosque and then into a tourist attraction), Vangeli negates the relevance of tragedy even when caused by postcolonial cultural domination. In this context, Vangeli's artistic concepts are influenced by Orthodox Christian theology. Tragedy and suffering in earthly life are not recognized as relevant due to the sacral concepts of redemption and salvation obtained only through the Apocalypse.

The money fetish is embraced as strongly as the image of the Mother of God, an icon that is a phantasm--immaterial and powerful although still as vulnerable as any other material object. [18] On the other hand, the fetish of the poppy is also a very old and strong phantasmatic image that can serve for manipulation with the fragile national consciousness, and by taking into account Lenin's famous quote that "religion is the opium of the masses," religion and drugs are already closing the vicious circle.

Vangeli's usage of Macedonian flags and money should be understood metaphorically. Instead of questioning the possibility of a perfect ready-made within the Balkan context, Vangeli has posed the question of fabricating. In establishing legitimate state, church, money and subject-identities as widely recognizable symbols, she posed questions of identity rather than fabricating perfect objects.

Interestingly enough, for the second phase of the "Liquor Amnii 2" (a project that took place during the 1997 Convergence X Summer Festival in Providence, Rhode Island) Vangeli created another site-specific installation also dealing with issues of identity, this time using the latest model of life vests--produced in the United States--as ready-made objects. She floated the bright orange objects on the dark surface of the Providence River in order to represent the optimistic concept proclaimed by the title of the work itself: "The Constant Desire for Eternity." Thus, she also avoided any kind of possible national exoticism that could be taken as an argument against the imperfect ready-made. They can be replaced with perfect ready-mades that can be ordered and found even in the Balkans under special conditions, however, then the question arises of context and content becoming underestimated and neglected in favor of formal appearance.

In terms of the proliferation and consumption of images and the continuous flourishing of new media, one project by Yugoslav artist Zoran Naskovski gives a strange and tragic example. His project "War Frames" (1999) is a radical example of using TV programming as ready-made images in extraordinary circumstances. After he was selected as a participant in "Always Already Apocalypse," he found himself imprisoned in his home during the NATO bombardment over Belgrade. Not having access to any other materials, nor the freedom to produce any other work, he made the only possible choice--he recorded the images from the local TV stations including the strong media campaign of Slobodan Milosevic, the leader of the ruling government at that time.