Namiko Uchnárová: Au, to reže!

In her series of paintings Ouch, That Cuts!, the student of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Namiko Uchnárová (1999), anatomically examines cross-sections of cars, or rather fragments of a home. What do the insides of a car look like? Where does the need to decorate them come from? And are we still human if we have lost it along the way? According to the artist: “Some people have a natural talent in this regard; they can arrange homes, workspaces, and objects in a way that reflects their taste, needs, and ambitions. Others, like me, struggle with chaos inherited from previous generations – a relationship with objects that is more about accumulation than curation.“

The author of Japanese-Slovak origin with Slovak facial features, but with a Japanese first name, meets confused looks when introduced. Saying her name causes a cut – a revelation of identity, which, however, without further explanation about her Japanese roots, usually remains misunderstood. The car cross-sections are conceived on a similar principle of revealing the interior, which without surgical precision leaves permanent wounds. The car becomes a moving archive and also a metaphor for the author herself. In her paintings, she explores ways to capture this motif by contrasting the space around the cross-section and the space within. She creates a series of paintings, using a combined technique of acrylic painting and spraying through stencils. She thus continues to apply the approach she developed for her color illustrations.

It is no coincidence that the cars lack passengers – fragrant trees, daggers, toys, and the diversity of emptiness are reminiscent of their owners, just as the clay monster reminds the owner of herself. The author reflects on her own lack of need to decorate and invites the viewer to dissect her “internal design”.