'See Through Your Finger' by Jaroslav Kyša and Juraj Rattaj at Super, Vienna

The English idiom “Look Down One's Nose At”, finds its Slovak equivalent in phraseological expression “Looking at something through one’s fingers”, which means to look at a distance, with reserve, caution or contempt even. The title of the exhibition, See Through Your Finger, can be literally interpreted in terms of distance or spacing but also as a referral to the semantic interconnection of two senses: vision and touch. In phenomenological philosophy, the vision and the touch are interconnected in the complex of our body. Based on the body, we are incorporated "into the world" and we experience this world as something concerning us, touching us. The exhibit ion See Through Your Finger is focused on the relat ionship between these two senses in the context of material work.

In order to bridge the gap between the touch and the vision, the sculptors Jaroslav Kyša (*1981) and Juraj Rattaj (*1984) use the lively and semantically charged material – a clay.

The clay is close to the corporal, not only in terms of its chemical composit ion or from the perspective of Christian mythology (“...And the Lord God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils...”). The clay absorbs the touch and makes it visible. Our genet ic informat ion, our uniqueness is inscribed in the material. The component part of authors’ work is this fine "drawing” – the pattern of papillary lines from the inside of the knuckles of fingers. The imprint – the formula of lines – is the individualising element of every person. It’s the evidence of touch and the convincing index of presence. Corpus delicti.

The intervention in the KUNSTRAUM SUPER, Vienna, is a spatial – specific project based on the disposition and character of the gallery. The space is linked to the street and can be contained from the outside. The authors create a shield between the gallery and the street, the visual barrier made out of clay. The physicality of the material – its haptic qualities – is equally turning away from the viewer's sight. It is possible to look through the peephole into the interior from the specific spot. The view also makes us re-aware of the impossibility to contain the object from one place. If we want to reveal what’s behind the "curtain”, we must enter. To step over the doorstep. To overcome the retraction and distance and to see not through one’s fingers but through the touch (not Look Down One ́s Nose At but See ThroughYourFinger).

— Ján Kralovič