| THE IMPERFECTION OF THE AGE-OLD CIRCLE |
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According to Rudolph Arnheim, the circle is the very first organized shape emerging from children's fortuitous and uncontrolled scribble. In the latest series of drawings of the young author - Marjana Kostojcinoska - the circle represents a basic visual structure which is also delineating the topical closure of this exhibition: the schoolyard and all the children's activities pertaining to that irregular circle. Controversies about the motives of obsession with this simplest of all shapes, which is frequently encountered, among the children, are ranging from the Freudian explanation of imitative rendering of circular objects from the environment, to the usage of circle mainly due to its simplicity! and central symmetry that are making the copying easier for child's unskillful hand. For Kostojcinoska, being a graphic artist, the circular line grows into a polysemy: she is employing it as a topical allusion on the fence of the schoolyard where the children play, as well as an allusion on the institutional border to be jumped over whenever the children feel like disobeying order ("Children fleeing from- classes" I, 2, 3), and above all, as a basic structural element of the composition. These, drawings are in greater part inspired by actual children's drawings produced in a particular set of social circumstances (American school). The author shows a special interest in the similarities and differences in drawings made by twins: the paired drawings are occurring frequently. The drawings are created by combining acrylic paint, china ink and pastel on tinted aquarelle paper, in a way that often arranges the black lines separately from the chromatic gesture, which in turn, emphasizes the graphical orientation of Kostojcinoska. Reduced shapes akin to the prehistoric painting, are bearing witness to the possibility of a parallel analysis of the phylogenetic and ontogenetic development of painting: within a span of one human lifetime it seems as if all the phases of the art history' were evolving. It is just the irregular circular shape that is connecting in a most direct manner the children's drawings and the, drawings from the prehistoric monuments. The parallel research of actual children's drawings and the drawings inherited from the age-old civilizations, as well as the endless variation of the perfect form in its imperfect aspect, are all denoting the general direction of Marjana Kostojcinoska in conceiving her first solo exhibition as an accomplished cycle of drawings.
Suzana Milevska
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