Veronika Jakatics-Szabó

Read­ing Log

Of all the ways of ac­qu­i­ring books, writing them on­eself is re­gar­ded as the most praise­wor­thy met­hod. (Wal­ter Ben­ja­min)

While this is und­o­ub­tedly true, the drive for “pic­tu­re writing” is just as im­por­tant as the am­bit­ion to crea­te text. Ve­ro­ni­ka Ja­ka­tics-Szabó ac­qu­i­res her books th­ro­ugh her ima­ges; she rep­la­ces – or som­etimes supp­le­ments – writing with vi­su­a­lity. Her jour­nal con­tain­ing her read­ing ex­pe­ri­en­ces is, in itself, a praise for read­ing, books and writing, be it in the form of let­ters or vi­su­al ele­ments. She uses the book – the me­di­um which still de­fi­nes writ­ten cul­tu­re today – as a mass of bound, writ­ten papers to crea­te ob­jects. Al­ter­na­ti­vely, she crea­tes its cont­ents using her own dra­wings, or uni­fi­es text and image on boards re­mi­nis­cent of the pages of child­ren’s books.

The ar­tist trans­forms the ex­pe­ri­en­ce of read­ing into ima­ges; she trans­fi­gu­res the worlds re­ve­aled in the books she reads into pic­tu­res, thus de­fi­ning herself as re­ce­i­ver, then ar­tist. In spite the per­so­nal na­tu­re of this pro­cess, these works carry ex­pe­ri­en­ces that are fa­mi­li­ar to many and in­vi­te vie­wers on a journey of dis­co­very into the vi­su­al worlds that hide be­hind writing.

The rep­re­s­en­ta­ti­on of urban spa­ces and their dwel­lers is a cent­ral theme of Ve­ro­ni­ka Ja­ka­tics-Szabó’s (1983) paint­ing. In her ex­hi­bit­ion en­tit­led Read­ing Log, she exp­lo­res an in­dis­pen­sib­le ele­ment of urban exis­ten­ce – that of read­ing, of one’s re­la­ti­onship to texts and books. She not only brings up a new theme, but also ac­qu­i­res new media: her modes of exp­r­es­si­on are furt­her en­ri­ched by mo­ti­on pic­tu­res and book ob­jects, made spe­ci­fi­cally for the ex­hi­bit­ion.