Michal Kalhous is the author of those large, grey and sloppily focused photographs on which we can see an excavator, pilgrims at a crucifix or a sausage on a string. The world is filled with billions of objects and by combining them we can reach a much higher number; and if you, God forbid, start to photograph them, then there are new realities created that need to be put into context and we just continue to hope that this chaos may eventually make sense. And I don’t dare speak about situations, of which there will certainly be infinity.
If we exhibit these types of photographs – similarly to Michal Kalhous – in a gallery, then we expect for them to be meaningful in some way. We look at them and ponder their meaning. Or this whole messy situation can be resolved just by looking, without pondering why and how, and by letting ourselves be carried away and letting the time just float by, and we can leave the confusion on the shoulders of others. Unfortunately, we are all pulled into our time, culture and things we use, and into education that has formed us. The path of looking at reality without bias is increasingly limited.
Therefore, also Michal Kalhous, whom I consider to be one of the few contemporary liberators of our predetermined perception and experiencing, reacts, in his photographic work, to realities that he is tied to. One of the first things in his publicised work was his relationship to expressionism, to death and critical situations, to the boundaries of the body and borders of things; prevailing was also a fascination over movement, and over chaotic situations in our lives. In the most recent years, perhaps under the influence of his increasingly intensive family life, he has focused on redefining human society on Christian foundations. Family should be like an orchard, human society is more than individuality, we must help the weak, the world is full of small miracles – you just need to see them. It seems like he is trying to work his way through to the at least a little liberal, unbiased child’s perception.
What is most viable on Michal Kalhous’ photographs is precisely that contradiction between their satiation of cultural meanings and the manner of overlooking such meanings or reacting to them with hope and amazement.
