Glazed porcelain figures, each about 35 × 21 × 25 cm
Radan also works with modifications of body language, which can lose their meaning and shift depending on the context. This aspect of his work is revealed for the first time in a series of porcelain figures, capturing a moment of frozen stillness. The combination of roughly modeled silhouettes and delicately shimmering material makes the statuettes appear both cast from a single mold and like mysterious excavations from an archaic era. The source material came from photogrammetries of avatars that Radan captured in the video game Counter-Strike, after observing them for some time as an invisible spectator until they were struck down by fatal gunfire.
The collapsed bodies, in their new sculptural form, resist clear association with digital contexts or first-person shooter games. They evoke images of wounded warriors, abstracted nudes, studies of everyday gestures, or even a Pietà. Their misshapen outlines reflect a fleeting moment of virtual vulnerability, just before the player can resurrect their avatar and the game continues. Physically damaged-looking, restless landscapes and figures shaped like landscapes form two central themes in Aleksandar Radan's work. They intertwine on an intuitively accessible level, blending humor with melancholy, and meaningful references with surreal details.
Text by Ellen Wagner
