GIORGI SHALIKASHVILI

SCEENSCAPES

SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS MFA FINE ARTS, 2024

THESIS WORK STATEMENT

The screen as concept has become ingrained in my perception, aligning with hyperreality. It alters how I view the world, replacing the aesthetics of industrial, sterile, and evenly paint-covered surfaces with stimulating, multifaceted exposures. I paint colored fields that oppose totality and uniformity, accentuating acceptance, generosity, and productiveness. Screen-like shapes not only display activity on their surfaces but also divide and create space. My thesis project, Screenscapes, integrates the concept of screens into abstract paintings on canvas, extending this exploration into existential, political, and social media contexts.

Through subtractive color mixing, airbrush techniques, and taped structures, I investigate the relationships between colored, screen-like units on canvas. These paintings embody productive tension within translucent, quadrilateral fields populated by blurred dots and lines. The elements within my works intersect, overlap, shift, and oscillate, forming spaces that are simultaneously flat and optically dynamic. Accompanying these canvases is a video application that conceptually complements the project, examining the influence of screens and digital media.

In "Screenscape" (2023), floating, translucent shapes interact against a dark background, dividing and defining space while exposing internal movements. These shapes evoke the qualities of screens, simultaneously shaping and being shaped by their surroundings.

In "Dispersive Interoception" (2023), I created a complex space with multiple vanishing points. Trapezoids and kite shapes convey the complexity of the compositional space. This dynamic reflects my state of mind and expectation for unforeseen changes.

"Dispersive Interoception" (2023) explores compositional complexity through multiple vanishing points. Trapezoids and kite-like shapes construct a dynamic, multilayered space, reflecting the anticipation of unforeseen changes and the evolving state of mind.

"Love" (2024) highlights physical interactions between colors and shapes to evoke emotional resonance. Two kite forms extend beyond the canvas edges, linked by grids that render the space versatile and interchangeable. The painting explores how elements transform one another through subtraction, creating shared space and meaning.

In "Desirous Juxtapositions" (2024), kite-colored units come together to reveal mismatches and blending, embodying productive tension. The intersections of these elements demonstrate the coexistence of different desires and ideas without conflict, echoing principles of quantum mechanics where interaction is governed by unseen but integral rules.

The "Untitled" video (2024), co-developed with Revaz Shalikashvili, features a camera mirror app inspired by David Kakabadze’s 1924 work. The app flips the viewer’s image upside down in real-time, examining digital media's distortion of reality and commenting on global injustices. By positioning the viewer as an inverted protagonist within a social media framework, the work critiques the dissonance between reality and its representation.

Finally, I reflect on the historical interplay between art and political agendas as part of the broader system through which art generates meaning. Lissitzky’s propaganda poster Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919) transcended artistic expression, becoming a vehicle for political power. Its symbolism and uniformed representation of color and form resonate with me personally as I consider how the Bolshevik occupation of my home country, Georgia, in 1921 forced the social democratic government into exile. This historical example highlights the dual nature of art—both as a space for independent thought and as a tool within larger ideological systems. In contrast, my work engages with color and space through a relational, pluralistic visual language, resisting imposed structures and embracing fluidity, openness, and multiplicity.