Jakub Lipavský’s work reduces things, ideas and pretexts to the minimum necessary. He concentrates, shapes and finalises a sculptural object that is autonomous in itself. It is a transcription of sensual perception into a lapidary form, either tightened into a perfectly smooth, glossy shape or shrinking into the surface of a bumpy structure of aluminium sheet. The internal force of the abstaraction process destroys the surface of these sculptures inwards. We have no idea what the boxes are hiding – whether they are full or empty. They probably enclose only an idea of the initial shape, something between a sanctuary, a menza, and a carburetor cover. The secret and austerity of the shape give Jacob’s objects a new ritual significance. Temporality is to be overwhelmed by permanence, as in the case of ancient liturgical objects whose eternity no one doubts. A monument of intimate proportions, turned in on itself, has the potential to be a movable monument of the future.
However, the artist also has in his repertoire pieces that are meant to reconcile us with our own temporality. He leaves them forgotten in the grass, dusty, rusting. Concrete cubes or earth cast blocks intersect wooden pieces that won’t be there forever. Likewise, rusted iron elements give water time to work on the slow destruction of the material. Thus the concept of extinction and eternity intersect in the altars of our brief present.
