In her new series, Irinka Talakhadze ventures into the territory of phenomenology and revisits matters related to perception that have fascinated philosophers and art historians — and have equally captured the attention of artists.The characters in Collision of Reality come from her Cold Tears series, where the faces were not highlighted and maintained complete transparency. In the new series, the artist works to bring them closer to reality with expressive faces, many of them striking a balance between two realities. For Talakhadze, this precarious equilibrium reveals just how dystopian an image can be, even if, at first glance, the representation might be veiled with a utopian varnish. It draws on an ongoing theme across Talakhadze’s work, and reveals how utopia and dystopia can coexist within the same image.
