31 Oct - 01 Dec 14
A Dialogue
Huseyn Hagverdi and Fariza Babayeva
FB: We exist in a world of creative formation. The world is not only perceived by us, but it is also interpreted. What is the primary concern for the sculptor's interpretation?
HH: It is the material which is primary. The material dictates interpretation; the perception of a material prompts the developmental direction for the concrete idea of any sculpture.
FB: How is the concrete idea is formed?
HH: It is not subject to formation. It exists in space. And every human catches it, like a small fish from the ocean of the surrounding environment; as a fisherman throws a hook, a human makes the attempt to come closer to nature and to learn about himself. How is a concrete idea formed? It is formed from experience accumulated by centuries, the individual selection of knowledge and experience, and finally, from the ability to snatch himself out of space.
FB: What does it mean to “snatch someone out of space”?
HH: It means to observe and to learn about himself in the observed environment. Being in the same space humans may observe completely different things and get different impressions, composing themselves from various reflective emotions. For the last 20 years I have been observing the Shirvanshah's Palace through my window. Once it occurred to me that I hadn't drawn its image, and then I realized it is represented practically, in all my works. The absolutely distinct, clear, graphic and constructive silhouette of the ancient city Icheri sheher and Shirvanshah's Palace is reflected in my brain, as a stamp, which is transformed in endless combinations. It is some kind of a code, from the basis of which I can develop my own topics.
FB: One point is to observe and another is to intervene into natural structures, as when the work starts with material, in this case with stone.
HH: Intervention? I would call it in a different way: A dialogue … I may have a preconceived idea of what I will do when I enter into a yard filled up with stones, but these assumptions might be realized and might not be realized; may change guide or to go in an absolutely opposite direction after I touch the stone. I will try to feel and preserve it, that perhaps casual, but natural point. That is, I will try to detect its essence, the essence of this part of nature.
FB: “to hear the desire of a stone» … That is some self-conscious writing …
HH: I agree, it may be a fairy tale, and there is some imagination, but it seems each stone has something inside itself, something which may be seen by the artist. And each artist will see their own essence. I will reveal this essence of a stone; another artist will reveal another essence. This is a material, but it is a part of nature and a human learns from nature.
FB: and what does Huseyn Hagverdi learn?
HH: He learns to form a galaxy. While entering into a dialogue, I start a session of simultaneous game – formation of "own environment”. Various stone cuts and everything have their “intention”, which one would like to learn. After cutting a line in one stone, I start immediately observing another one and move to it, proceeding from the previous one and so on. Thus, simultaneously a conversation with all stones is developed, and gradually an atmosphere of a small galaxy of stones, complementing each other with my own and their own sensations. When I see that they talk with each other, have a general gravity, and co-exist jointly with one wave and wind, and that they are not strangers, I understand that a dialogue has taken place.
FB: And is a galaxy formed then?
HH: Then it is formed...
FB: I'm recollecting Ken Wilber's words: “The Big Bang makes every human, thinking of it, as an idealist. First, there was nothing and then Bang. Also something appeared”. Actually, it is beyond understanding. How is Form created from Emptiness? At which point does an idea come to end and action start?
HH: It is difficult to detect this distinction, where idea comes to an end and an action starts. But there is a point, when you see a material and enter into dialogue with it. Then some discernment occurs. This may be imagined as a short circuit in chain of consecutive events, which are relating not only to me, but to a material, as well. A stone is a part of nature, like a human being, it travels a long journey of transformation. Thus it has its own history, which one must be able “to read”, dividing into part signals and tips to approach it, and to treat delicately so as not to destroy it and to manage to preserve this natural element. When you start feeling a stone, some bright moment of its past, present and future is disclosed, inside of which one may create something of his own improvisation, vision and experiment.
FB: Thus, you bring to mind Heidegger's "event" which gives to the human, “demanding it for himself, to get realized in his own essence”.
But after all it does not occur in itself and there is a long preparatory stage of experiment. I mean, for example the last series of graphic works. Practically all of them "brood over" a stone. Then is it possible to state that graphic work is an idea itself, and work in a stone is an action?
HH: But drawing is also an action. It is also an introduction to the following action. I think that this process is connected, and it is inter-convertible process. A cycle of graphic works predicts work in stone; discoveries in graphic art are reflected in stone, which allows a retreat to graphic art with the sensation of stone. I do not think that one may consider concepts of “idea" and "action" independent of each other. One generates the other; they supplement each other and provide possibilities for new experiment. Therefore it is useless to argue what a “start” point and what an “end” point are. This process is endless.
FB: Thus, is it impossible to call an exhibition the final result of a creative process?
HH: Certainly, by no means! An exhibition is just an intermediate stage, pulled out from the context of the wider process. This show is indicative of a program of works, which may have its own concept and may be treated definitively by viewers and art critics, but whom, in no case, can reflect on the whole process completely. The exhibition is a keyhole, where by peeping one may observe just a small pattern of the big process.
FB: So, where to search for the truth?
HH: Innuendo. A space for your own dialogue is disclosed, when there are no any distinct definitions and statements. The truth is invented by us, and not by nature. And we form part of nature, which is not much learned, deep down, by us. I think art is presented to us as an eternal search for this knowledge. Therefore, truth in art is not an answer, but it is a question, generating new questions in response.
FARİZA BABAYEVA