In his new series of drawings titled Red Shift, Ivan Stojakovic unabashedly makes his presence known. Made with palpable marks and intense colour these works embody the determination of Stojakovic’s search for awareness through form. By adopting diagrammatic notational symbols the drawings make attempts at structure. This control, when found, is constantly at risk by the unrestrained forces of exuberant gesture. Can we be witnessing a reaction, a transformation from one state to another?
In his newly adopted homeland of Canada, Stojakovic has discovered distances in space and relativism in thought. Born and raised in Belgrade, his memory of a homogenous culture – a culture united in it’s own beliefs and struggles for survival – remains. He’s had to make a great transition- from one model of thought to another. This movement, this “shift”, is the underlying theme in the work. Stojakovic has taken up his drawing implements as a means of finding a visual language for expressing his own interpretation- all imperfect and true. What emerges is a variable cosmology of voids, presences and shimmering energies.
Stojakovic’s work reminds us, that now: it is an act of faith to make a mark of self-expression.
Anda Kubis
Anda Kubis is a painter living in Toronto who teaches at Ontario College of Art and Design.