Davor Dukić
Man of action, polyester, acrylic color, fabric, rubber, hight 28cm
Limited edition, polymer clay, acrylic paint, mirror, fiberglass, 30x30x30cm, 2009.
Plastic Anatomy
French toys: One could not find a better illustration of the fact that the adult Frenchman sees the child as another self. All the toys one commonly sees are essentially a microcosm of the adult world; they are all reduced copies of human objects, as if in the eyes of the public the child was... Toys here reveal the list of all the things the adult does not find unusual...
Roland Barthes*
The concept of toys as a means of projecting the perceptions of adults onto children, always raises anew the issue of the modern society’s image in the process. What kind of world is thus presented to the children? What models should they adopt through toys? By the gradual naturalization and implementation of values, rules and regulations, desires are created that position the new generations within a consumer society’s coordinate system. Toys become a means and material proof of the buildup of layers not only of cultural, but also ideological codes, frequently subjected to superficial erasure. The biopolitical project of shaping the bodies and personalities of children through the toy industry is skillfully omitted from public perception and understanding of the ways hidden social powers work. Under the label of education and emancipation, all other meanings that lie behind an object’s aesthetic features thus remain unquestioned.
With his exhibition entitled Plastic Anatomy, sculptor Davor Dukić deconstructs the world of toys. By transferring ready-made objects into a new, ostensibly “harmless” context (works Ping-Pong Heroes, Choking Hazard), the author insists precisely on these censured, ideological influences. Using the techniques of mass production, multiplication and fragmentation, Dukić produces his own models and a series of toys/objects wherein he partly annuls the traces of his intervention. If we examine these objects in relation to the global toy production, we have to place them at a point where the manufacture of industrial, franchised and designer toys converge. This is a deliberately underlined absurdity, because these industries hardly exist in Serbia. Although striving to mimic them in detail and present them as finished industrial products, the author invests them with a quality of unique works of art which, at this juncture, offer themselves to mass production. Multiplication and creation of a series of objects of (objectively) identical nature (Egotoy) result in witty expression of different performative capabilities and spontaneous individualization. On the other hand, his works omitting the expected multiplication (Accessory, Man of Action), attain the exclusivity of small editions, of a limited number of copies intended for “serious” collectors. They even come with their own packaging, which is a vital element of designer toys – toys no one plays with, that have lost their basic function.
The process of fragmentation characteristic of Dukić’s works is related to anatomy, that being rendered using toys as a language. Are their torn-off and broken parts replaced and/or repaired? Not so in the world of toys. But, modern society is fully committed to that idea, under whose guidance science, medicine and the beauty industry are given a free hand. In his works Davor Dukić offers possible interpolations of such a world, saturated with plastic surgery and glorifications of the body cult. In his version, certain objects/toys create the feeling of the uncheimlich precisely through establishing a clear connection with the real. The materials the author uses – polyester resin/silicone rubber – are toxic, and – for ordinary people – of an almost incomprehensible chemistry. These substances are brought into connection with human body, more and more open to being complemented, improved or fortified with objects made of plastic, silicone, precious metals, and laboratory-grown tissue.
From this, apprehensions arise: will our body remain functionally unchanged after being in contact, and in symbiosis, with such materials? Do we know what kind of plastic our child’s favorite toy is made of? Because, once the game is over, these objects meant only to be used for a while and destroyed, damaged, or discarded, remain permanent, material witnesses of human actions, not different at all from those of laboratory mice.
Jovana Dukić
* Roland Barthes, Mythologies, Hill and Wang, New York, 1991, 53.