Maya is the “cultic object” and “demonstration aid” of Pauer’s world explanation of PSEUDO ART elaborated for sculpture and extended to other media (painting, photo, theatre, performance). The recognition according to which the manipulatedness of sculpture (and art) refers to the general maipulatedness of life and existence, takes on a critical nature in the given social milieu.
Maya is the only survivor of Pauer’s work at the Sculptors’ Symposium in Nagyatád in 1978. Her proportionately carved oakwood body bears the light-and-shade copy of a young naked woman, applied by paint-spray, as a pseudo-glaze fixed on silk. Her figure is the protagonist of the “ceremonies” of pseudo performances, putting on and getting rid of layers of textile and text. The constantly “updated” mythology built around it, including explanations, instructions of use and production, PR texts, free verse, photo documentation, chronological review, is further extended by the accident of the “splitting” of the body as a “Maya experience” revealing that reality is appearance.
This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.
