Németh, Ilona: Private Gynaecological Surgery (1997)

This installation – comprising three gynaecological examination chairs covered with rabbit hair, moss, and red velvet – is one of those works of the artist that model the interrelationship of the self and its environment, including basic perception or socially determined roles. The end results of these kinds of compositions are self-explanatory and sensitive representations of otherwise verbally hard-to-express artistic ideas interwoven with various social scientific concepts and „discourses”. The medical examination chair may bring to mind the notion of female disease or pregnancy, or that of the “male gaze”, and the idea of female helplessness. The various wrapping materials symbolize desire, fertility, sexuality – thereby referencing the female body that is not directly presented in the piece. All three materials have the common trait of tactility, therefore affect our most basic sense – beyond vision – of touch. The ethnic Hungarian artist living in Slovakia turned her attention during the first decade of the new millennium to such social and sociological issues as the relationship of the public and private spheres, the present and historical state of Eastern Europe, the identity of its population, social prejudice and intolerance, the relationship of authority and the individual. All of Németh’s work is focused on current and consequential issues, and the artist initiates – especially via her public art pieces – social discourse about these unavoidable topics. K.Sz.