Too Much Too Soon

“Katarína Hládeková and Ondřej Homola conceived of the exhibition Too Much Too Soon as a unified installation in which individual artefacts find themselves on the boundary between props acting as support for the overall narrative, and autonomous artworks, most of which might be termed sculptures. The individual styles of the two artists (Hládeková’s trademark is a conceptual and craft-based consistency, while Homola works with symbol, elision and joke) are already interwoven at the level of individual objects. The entire installation can be described as dialogical. Or perhaps dialectical? All the works-props-models reinforce the theme of art as play, or rather specific sports disciplines with their own rules and institutions. Art schools, galleries, residencies – all are permeated with the ethos of competition; we find in them coaches and jurors, ready to offer instructions for success or a verdict as to whether success has been (or might yet be) achieved. The dialectical dimension relates to what in postmodernism is called double coding. The exhibition can be read as the outcome of the studies conducted by both artists, and the artefacts on show as models or examples of the workflows and strategies of contemporary art: installation, readymade, DIY… At the same time, however, we can view the exhibition as completely autonomous, a mature display, i.e. as something that itself deserves to the subject of study and exploration.”
(Text by Jan Zaléšák – curatorial text accompanying the exhibition Too Much Too Soon)