Iliko Zautashvili

Caucasian Manifesto, The Archetype of Prohibition
2008

The goal of this photographic diptych is to make the Caucasian myth and reality commonplace through images. The first image shows a man and a woman lying next to each other, the knife placed between their bodies. The second image captures the disobedience to the rule that the knife represents.

The artist translates this archaic motive into the present to show the absurdity of the rules of prohibitive nature, many of which continue to exist on a conscious or subconscious level: the memory of violation that entails various kinds of punishment. Sometimes these traditional restrictions can be manifested within social regulations. For example, the death penalty may be given when one commits an act of cruelty upon another. Some prohibitions and biases continue to exist, oppressing society’s freedom of choice. The knife symbolizes censorship, taboo, and a ban. The violation entails a punishment, death. It is possible to assume that this interdiction still suppresses some people as it extends not only to sexual relationships, but also to current prohibitions, like a subtext layered within social consciousness. The work attempts to research the traditional topic of a ban and its influence on human beings that are violating or obeying it.

 

Iliko Zautashvili

Touch Everything Except My Heart
2000-2018