Milos Vaseljovic - 'Pretty Flamingos' & 'Consequences of Pamploma' – 2004
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Milos met Zoran at a nearby art colony and was a part of Zoran's idea to introduce new blood to the venture at Prostor 2004. He studied at his local art faculty in Novi Sad and was delighted to be offered the prestigious opportunity to feature alongside other often more experienced contributors in this 'Open Space' colony. Taking inspiration from the pieces already on the hilltop we went into the local town, located a metal reclamation yard and acquired various materials including old and partly rusting exhaust pipes and a petrol tank including from classic Zastava cars. This together with other metal elements was fashioned and welded into two interlinked sculptures.
On completion each was enhanced with enamel metal paint and appropriately named. The two entwined pink flamingos were entitled 'Pretty Flamingos' after a Manfred Man song track from the 1960's era, reflecting the similarity in looks between Milos & Manfred Mann. Pictured is Milos alongside the sculpture also shown with Paul Smith's 'Black Horse' in the background. Similarly with the petrol tank now resembling a bull, discussion among the group resulted in naming it after the bull run in Pamplona, Spain, 'Consequences of Pamplona' emerged.
Bogdan Vukosavljevic - 'House Guard' ("Cuva Kuce") – 2004
Bogdan is a native of Belgrade. Having recently graduated from the arts faculty there, he became the youngest member of the group gaining his invitation as the son of a close and well known artist and friend of Zoran, Nikola Vukosavljevic who had in turn attended many art colonies with Zoran.
Bogdan grasped the theme and together we went down to the Drina River Valley, separating the now 2 countries of Serbia and BiH. Here after a partial flood of the river we located a large part of tree trunk of Poplar (Topola) washed up on to the banks which we reclaimed. It appeared to be well seasoned and quite dry and Bogdan thought it would make a good head somewhat abstracted and painted, mounted on four upright reclaimed railway sleepers and placed near the house. As with other pieces discussions came up with the idea of it being a 'House Guard or Cuva Kuci'.
As a postscript, neither Bogdan nor ourselves realised the unsuitability of this type of wood to the environment in which it was placed. It started to disintegrate rapidly and despite attempts at renovations was eventually removed in c.2015. Its replacement has now been put in place after commissioning as a work experience project from a student artist, Darko Petrovic, whose involvement is described fully as part of the update of the Hilltop Sculpture Park.