Supremacy

As its title suggests, the exhibition of Péter Tamás Halász is at once a commentary to Kazimir Malevich’s theory of Suprematism and a new artistic realization of Halász’s social and visual criticism.

Similarly to many of his earlier works, the exhibited objects of Halász are operational objects whose impact lies in the interplay between their form and functionality. Assembled from familiar components of domestic appliances, but their function unidentifiable based merely on their appearance, the surfaces of the objects display some well-known Suprematist compositions by Malevich.

A point of reference for figuring out the functionality of the objects is provided by thermographic images, in which the surfaces of different temperature appear in different colours, revealing not only the function of the objects, but also the acronyms hidden under their surface.

Through these acronyms, which are more-or-less well-known English abbreviations of institutions and concepts, the artist addresses such ideas, phenomena and problems as human rights, wealth and poverty, and environmental pollution.