JOSIP ŠURLIN
Ozymandias, 2018
two objects; steel, nitric acid, motor oil, 180 x 65 x 65 cm, 150 x 65 cm
photographs: Tomo Jeseničnik, Darko Škrobonja
The work Ozymandias consists of two steel objects in space. One resembles a ficus elastica plant and the other, a rectangular mirror placed on the wall. Both objects are treated with nitric acid in order for them to attain a dark patina and corroded surfaces. The whole installment of these objects in space simulates a section of a fictive office room reduced to two features of interior design: a plant and a mirror. This type of design is a classic example of modernistic interior arrangements. Being stylized and corroded, both objects that encompass this work may be understood as metaphors for the passing of time and due to the fact that modernistic architecture, mainly in Croatia, remains devastated and neglected, there is also the concept of architectural legacy and the tragic ignorance of its, once majestic, qualities. Thus, we have the work’s title, which is taken from a poem of the same name written by Percy Bysshe Shelley that tells the story of Ramses II (ozymandias is an Old Greek name for Ramses II), an Egyptian emperor who “speaks” from the sands of his buried empire. The same can be said for modernism in Croatia, and like Shelley’s verses describing vast amounts of old stone, monoliths or fragmented sculptures, a plant and a mirror of this work attempt to describe places lost in time – ones epitomized in their corroded geometric forms.