The drawings are accompanied by the minute-long video Personal Advice<\/em>, which presents the text of Bukovec\u2019s horoscope in English. The text has been translated from English into Slovene and back again by the Google Translate program and is also read out loud by computer software. Although it distances itself in this way from the original, it nevertheless preserves some of the characteristic features of personality tests and motivational methodologies. <\/p>\n Astrology is based on the misguided notion that the world is finite and that, given a certain amount of information, it is possible to draw conclusions about the future. Undoubtedly, people were once more connected to nature than we can understand today, when everyone has their own telephone, laptop, and car. Like everything around us, the human being, too, is composed of atoms that originated in the stars and will continue to exist long after we observers are gone. Our body is, of course, sensitive to all external phenomena, from the weather to changes in the positions of heavenly bodies, which can be seen most clearly with the tides and the full moon. What makes this carbon-based creature so special is the unusual property of wondering about its own existence. Even the church once distanced itself from making predictions about the future and placed the future clearly in the domain of God. Recent scientific discoveries also show that the world originated by chance and that the future is entirely unpredictable. Vesna Bukovec\u2019s drawings, however, contain neither astrological determinism nor analytical criticism.<\/p>\n While David Shrigley does not leave viewers room for doubt or for their own opinion and hits them straight in the eye with his direct, self-ironic gestures, Bukovec\u2019s drawings are less direct and their softly tense line restores the viewer\u2019s self-confidence and trust. Shrigley\u2019s drawings are barely distinguishable from handwritten text in printed capital letters, which he uses because, well, they are easier to read \u2013 but like Dan Perjovschi after him, he thus achieves the kind of credibility some call childlike. I am intentionally not going to discuss Dan Perjovschi here; his manner of expression is different, although he too uses a simple line for his drawing and handwritten text: ignoring the laws of central perspective, he creates a simple drawing underscored by ironic commentary. He usually draws his works directly on walls and thus thwarts the fetishism of the art market. Through his wall drawings he creates an atmosphere that can remind us of anything from cave drawings to contemporary graffiti and messages on bathroom walls, a fact that gives these works honesty and at the same time mutability. <\/p>\n Before we conclude, we must first look back almost a thousand years at the Bayeux Tapestry. I mention the Bayeux Tapestry because its manner of presenting narrative is similar to what we see again and again today \u2013 including in the work of the artists I have mentioned \u2013 and because of the scene named “ISTI MIRANT STELLAM”. Halley\u2019s Comet was a bad omen for Harold Godwinson, while it provided William the Conqueror with free room for interpretation and for the invasion of England. But because the appearance of Halley\u2019s Comet is periodic, happening every seventy-six years, its significance in astrology is less studied and, therefore, primarily important in astronomy and, of course, in history, since reports about seeing a bright star can help us date events. Like other heavenly bodies, Halley\u2019s Comet too can very likely influence our understanding of the world and thus open up new perspectives even for Vesna Bukovec\u2019s drawing series. The meaning of horoscopes must be found in the psychology of our human understanding of the world, of the various degrees of our sensitivity to the things that explain our fate and the future, especially when they are favourable to us, or at least not too bad.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Featured text was written for the occasion of the solo exhibition Vesna Bukovec, Clarity is everything right now<\/em>, Kapsula, Ljubljana 2010<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Works mentioned in the text:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.vesna-bukovec.net\/slike\/news\/Vesna-Bukovec_TheirTrueNature-web.jpg\" "\\"Vesna")
\nVesna Bukovec, from the seriesTheir True Nature<\/em>, ink on paper, 21 x 29,7 cm, 2010<\/span><\/p>\n