Continuum of Being by Jan Novotny
SITE #1:
Sir Winston Churchill Square
Jan Novotny
Continuum of Being
This large-scale installation, measuring 4 feet by 48 feet, is a mosaic of 120 photographic images. The work explores the interconnectedness of people across cultures while also serving as a meditation on the fluid and uncertain nature of perceived reality.
ARTIST STATEMENT
“My work and my life have been, and continue to be, driven by a deep curiosity and a sense of wonder that anything exists at all. Interwoven with this astonishment is a realization that nothing exists in isolation. Reality is relational; it is our connection with other living beings, with the earth and air, and with the cosmos itself that gives us life. ”
Continuum of Being explores the relationships, similarities, and interconnectedness of people across different cultures and circumstances. All human beings breathe the same air, live off the same planet, and experience the same emotions.
Continuum of Being also questions how we perceive reality; often we see only what we want to see, or what we have been conditioned to see. The strangeness within these images is intentional. By rejecting the camera’s fixation on singular, isolated moments, the photographs suggest the constantly shifting interplay of time and space. They point to the fluid nature of reality—how our understanding of what is real stretches, shifts, and transforms.
I invite you to become a co-creator of this work; set aside language and analysis and enter an emotional dialogue with the individual images and their relations to each other. The viewer’s engagement is what gives meaning to art.
My intention is to spark an awareness that everything is connected and that our experience of reality is inherently subjective. Within those realizations lies an understanding of how profoundly miraculous existence truly is.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jan Novotny was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he studied and worked in photography and film. At nineteen, he became a refugee following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring. Jan eventually emigrated to Canada, where he lived in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver before settling in Edmonton.
After working in several different fields—including two stints in Toronto and Vancouver film laboratories—Jan pursued a new career path that culminated in more than twenty years as General Manager of Edmonton’s Royal Glenora Club and the Derrick Golf and Winter Club.
Throughout this time, he continued to cultivate his passion for photography, presenting his work in both private and public exhibitions. These included three solo shows at The Works Art & Design Festival (2010, 2012, and 2016).
Jan recently published a memoir, Bohemia: Unearthing the Roots.