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January 23, 2009
Surreal, cosmic images
Artist's work presents a unique view of the world.
OLGA LIVSHIN
Vancouver artist Assia Linkovsky is a woman full of contradictions. She has a bachelor's degree from Concordia University, but she is making her living as a cook. Her collages are small, but they carry big ideas. Even her name is not exactly what it seems, although the opening night of her show Telescoptic on Jan. 15 at the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery was exactly what it was supposed to be – a celebration of art.
Linkovsky's parents named her Assia at birth, but in Montreal in the 1950s, the name was regarded as unusual, so she was renamed Karen in kindergarten. That name stuck. So, she is still Karen to her friends and family, but Assia Linkovsky is her artistic pseudonym.
"I like the name Assia now," she said. "I use it for my art, but I can't order all my friends to stop calling me Karen."
After graduating from university, Linkovsky took a variety of jobs, most of them menial. She lived in Toronto for a few years before moving to the West Coast.
For the last 15 years, she has been working in Vancouver as a cook. Currently, she is employed in that capacity at the Independent Living Society residences.
"I like cooking," she confessed. "I consider cooking an art form. A meal has color and texture, like a painting, plus an additional bonus of smell and taste."
In the 1980s, Linkovsky, with her friend Barbara Cohen, organized several funky food parties for their friends. Fooling around with food, they created artful dishes that looked like savory treats, while being essentially sweet confections. For example, a bunch of white chocolates with almond fillings was presented as a plate of ravioli. They looked indistinguishable.
"I have fun combining the unusual, creating the unexpected," she said. "If I had to use one word to describe myself, I would say I'm a synthesizer."
Linkovsky uses the same approach for her collages: synthesis with an underlining of humor. She creates art as she cooks: with love and ingenuity.
Linkovsky often uses recycled or alternative art supplies in her pieces. She frequents stores of commercial discards, such as Ruby Dog's Art House (recently closed) and Urban Source on Main Street. "Such stores provide an inexhaustible source of inspiration and materials for an artist," she said. From old magazines, out-of-print books and misprinted atlases, she crafts unique artistic presentations, giving new existence to someone's rejected pages, elevating waste paper and glue to the summit of high art.
Almost every one of her pieces in the show has an implied story, juxtaposing different perspective, combining cosmic with mundane. Life seen through a telescope almost equals changed reality, while the artist experiments with different perspectives, scales and scopes.
In "Armchair Traveller," the first collage of the show, a girl in an old armchair seems herself part of the universe, her body made of the same glowing celestial plasma as the stars. The picture is contemplative, inviting a viewer to think: we are all part of the same world, we are all connected.
The topic of universal connection highlights most of the pieces. In "Planetary Footprint," the star-studded human footprints walk across the starry sky. People leave their footprints everywhere. And it's their duty to make sure those footprints don't destroy what they leave behind.
The stellar association unites many collages of the show. Surreal and dramatic, they sprout from outdated astronomical photographs and maps, while the images scream the hot topics of the day. "I often listen to the radio when I work," Linkovsky said. Her "Lift Off" has the planet Earth in a woman's palm, while a partial face looks on, curious to see what happens next.
"Star Wars" displays fighters brandishing their guns. Confronted with its militaristic, alarming connotations, one can't help but think of a burning Middle East and all the death and devastation a war brings.
On the other hand, "Rooted" is a life-affirming piece. "Originally, it was a photograph of a female model in a man's suit," Linkovsky recalled. "I like ambiguity. It leaves room for wider interpretation." Her lively imagination prompted her to glue on a tree in place of a head, underscoring the close interrelationships of everything alive. A huge root sack serves as a woman's womb, feeding the flora of the planet.
"Imbedded" is another uplifting piece, showing a beautiful girl imbedded in an old map of Israel. Light plays on the girl's lovely face. How far are we from those ancient Israelites?
"When I create these pieces, I create my own universe, make something from nothing," Linkovsky said.
She explained that her process of cutting and pasting is always a lot of fun – goal-oriented but playful, providing her with nourishment for her artistic identity. "... I have interwoven figures with maps. I have paid particular attention to color, light, texture and composition in order to achieve a seamless dramatic effect ... to engender in the viewer a fresh way of considering the world," she said.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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