Šléfstn? Spíš?
The exhibition, with its salon-like atmosphere, presents a hideaway for boys lulled to sleep in beautifully blooming meadows. The scene for rest is complemented by the fabric draperies of a cozy room and a sculpture of a dragonfly—one you’d expect to find displayed in a glass case or gathering dust on a nightstand. The only unexpected observers of their sleep are a stray, curious hen and the visitor themselves. The figures, oblivious to their surroundings, seem to invite the visitor to approach and ask: “Are you sleeping?
There is no wrong answer, though every version of it reveals that the activity in question is not taking place at all—and certainly not while the person is answering. But what if no sweet word reaches the person’s ear? Has the reclining figure sunk into a well-deserved sleep, or into eternal rest? Mark Ther traditionally seeks out the extraordinary phenomena of everyday life. Although he himself enjoys reconstructing eras he did not experience, he draws from historical narratives grotesquely poetic paradoxes and hidden details that reveal enduring states of human nature more than they do specific periods of time.
