By Anand Holla
For most people with a sound memory, dealing with past experiences recurrently flashing in their minds is not always easy. Serbian artist Gala Caki is not only at ease with her memories, she also draws heaps from them as they inform and shape her works.
At the third edition of the Al Asmakh International Symposium of Art — a week-long residency that was recently held in Doha — Caki was the youngest of the 50 artists from various countries, and she sums this process thus: “My imaginary life is the creation of live memory in which I hold the wholeness of suffering I have gone through. The imagination is the fruit of me as a monster of emotions.”
That may sound complex and that is because it is. The 27-year-old PhD student of Fine Arts in Belgrade is a fine talent, as attested by her exceptional run with local and international exhibitions – both, independent and group – followed by fellowships from Foundation Ruth Katzman in New York, Raghurajpur International Art/ Craft Exchange in India and Artles creative center, Hämeenkyrö in Finland, and several awards.
“I am blessed with alive memories. I have a lot of them and I don’t want to let them die,” Caki explains, “All those pictures in my head, I put them onto the canvas.”
What kind of memories is she talking about? “Everything that affects me; from my childhood to my relationships with grandparents, siblings, parents and friends. It’s too hard to deal with some tragedies such as emotions related to a friend who died in an accident,” Caki says, “I feel it’s better to let them out and lay them bare.”
In a brief note next to her two paintings that were on display as part of the exhibition at Wyndham Grand Regency Hotel that capped the Symposium, Caki says, “My work can be subsumed under a kind of schematic expression of my inner life in all of its dramatic turbulence. In this way, my painting is a sacred space, a sanctuary in which my ego can reclaim its depth and creativity that have been lost in the world. The presented life is only possible due to the lacking and failure of our memory.”
However, one of the two paintings, a compelling close-up portrait of a man who seems to be looking through a haze of sooty smoke, knocked at the doors of her imagination from nowhere.
“I was in the middle of so many people,” she says, referring to the residency at the Sealine camp in Mesaieed, “Moreover, a desert is a strange place to work. It’s not a normal atmosphere for someone coming from Serbia,” she says and laughs. “But I enjoyed this experience a lot.”
Two or three days after Caki came to Doha, the man’s face beckoned her. “Somehow, this character grew in my imagination. I still don’t know who he is,” she reasons.
His face appears to be like that of someone emerging from a cave, she feels. “His skin isn’t usual. It looks like wood because perhaps he mostly stays outdoors. It’s hard, rugged, as if he has been wandering in the deserts,” says Caki.
As for her other painting, which also grabs you by the collar, particularly for its fascinating play with colours, Caki traces it back to one of her dreams. “It’s a dark painting, where the three persons are actually me,” she elaborates.
“It’s like a Matryoshka doll version of my personality. There’s a good side, a bad side, and perhaps a strange side, and all of it makes me one person. In the dream, when I saw this, I think I was on fire. Those were strong emotions.”
Travelling has helped Caki become a better artist ever since she started out at 19 because of the opportunities it has afforded her to imbibe from experiences and also to expose her work to others. “I reckon I will be a thinking person as I grow older,” she says, smiling.
And to grow as an artist, Caki believes logic isn’t always helpful. “You must listen to your heart, to everything inside of you, and not so much to what seems logical,” she says, “Technique is logical, of course, but you must feel that person inside you. I feel listening to the voices within you is key. You must be the creator. You must not let the system create you and your art.”
Gala Caki
