Kanrec Sakul, Sukera Fumo at VUNU, Košice

Sukera Fumo by Kanrec Sakul, exhibition design by Niki Bernath, at VUNU, Košice, 19/02/2025.

Exhibition Text:

The new exhibition project by Kanrec Sakul, Sukera Fumo (translated from Esperanto as Sugar Smoke), represents another chapter in his exploration of illusory spaces and the transformation of matter. This time, the central motif is smoke, an unstable, elusive element symbolizing movement, transformation, and the blurring of boundaries between reality and illusion.

Sakul builds upon his previous exhibition project, Velura Rando (November 2024, VUNU Bratislava), yet he abandons even the subdued color dynamics of that work in favor of a completely monochromatic spectrum. A surprising shift occurs as the previously pristine painted surface now takes on a new “stained” aesthetic. In these works, Kanrec Sakul experiments with layered textures that evoke feelings of aging, decay, and degradation. The surfaces of the paintings bear marks of erosion, creating the impression of time captured in motion. Through texture and surface deterioration, layers of memory, history, and vulnerability are revealed.

Sakul constructs spaces that exist between worlds—between the concrete and the ambiguous, the tangible and the ephemeral. The motif of smoke also functions as a metaphor for the dissolution of boundaries between identity, space, and time. Some paintings contain indistinct, amorphous forms, suggestive of animalistic or creature-like presences. However, these figures lack clear contours, appearing more like ghosts in the mist, reinforcing Sakul’s fascination with blurring the lines between the known and the unknown.

In the spirit of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and his concepts of “multiple identities” and “deterritorialization,” Sakul’s paintings become maps of uncertain territories, where rigid boundaries are erased and replaced by fleeting transitions. Here, smoke is not just a physical phenomenon but a symbol of mental and emotional movement, a constant reshaping of identities and memories that resist definitive conclusions.

Sukera Fumo opens the door to the artist’s inner worlds, which are unstable and unpredictable, yet in this very instability, new perspectives on reality emerge.