January 2007
Michal started to explore the artistic possibilities of coloured pencils about three years ago. Later, he started to test their boundaries in large, veristic drawings. He spends several months working on each of the drawings until the paper and the pencils allow it. He doesn't want to neglect the shaping or the surface in any way, so that he can consider the result of his work as a necessity rather than a mere possibility. He trusts representation, but he reaches for a way to critically grasp the fact that he mirrors the visible world and presents an interpretation of it. This is also true for the self-portrait that is a form of living with oneself – seeing and defining oneself and the way we display ourselves to others. That's why Michal reflects on how to connect self-portrait with the ordinary home environment, and to overcome the everyday while remaining realistic.
Quite a probable Model is based on a simple relationship of the same scene carried out through two types of media. What can appear as a transcript of a photographic snapshot or an intentional self-degradation is transformed by the video into an effort to conduct a purposeless action for the longest possible time. Although these two scenes are similar, they are too different for us to tell which one is the model for the other.
Jiří Ptáček, 2007
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