The Worker of The Month
One-channel video with installation. 2013-6Accumulator. Group show, curator Zsuzsanna Szegedi-Maszák. Budapest Gallery, Budapest, HU. / 2016
Nylon Discotec - Budapest Gallery Weekend. Group show - represented by Horizont Gallery(HU). Budapest. HU. / 2016
The Worker of The Month. Painted ceramic figurine. 150mm x 110mm x 98mm. 2014
..A bald, obnoxious and grim portrait with a bleeding tie. With an earring on the left. Black suit, white male, xenophobia. A subjective assemblage. A visual cocktail called 'limited mindset'. He is The Worker of The Month. A fictive personality who is in general opportunist and, if necessary: cruel. Where can we find his heart? Hopefully, it is just hidden; wounded and shrunk - under his fake-ceramic skin, painted to spotless white.
/2015
A state of mind in an infinite loop/ No. 1
To be/remain/become an outsider is a contradictional position. But as always in the periphery, a lot of interesting, forgotten, or left-over things can be discovered.
/2015
Work-in-Progress: prototyping the installation. Madness, phobias and corruption. 29 pieces. Miniature, painted plaster, silk, variable size. 2015
When I created a persona called Vera Nimova in 2013 - I found this gesture the only legit response to an emerging schism in the cultural scene I just freshly entered.
What I experienced all of a sudden, that progression, self-doubt or self-reflection as integral parts of a healthily growing and ever-changing organism of the art sector became illegitim and non-supported by the narrative of the then-newly founded MMA (Academy of Hungarian Arts). I found myself in a dividing situation: should I cancel my participation in an institutional space that is supporting the emergence of the MMA-narrative, or stay (visible?) and exhibit– with respecting my peers and artist friends who were also going to take part in the show.
‘Vera Nimova was a dystopia itself, a weird mix of everything that is not-me, but stemming out from my
own, personal, civil fears and predictions’
FROM PERSONAL TO COLLECTIVE-
Using VN as a fictive character, to tell stories, I wanted to understand how deception works in storytelling; where are the responsibilities of the author –how can we fuse personal realities with fictitious (and fearful) predictions?
I found narrative storytelling in animation ( espcially, later, in 3D animation) an interesting tool/surface/interface, and I wanted to use fiction to paint up perso-nalities, scenarios that are being led by their wounds, fears - shaping their worldviews and also their perception. and even if it’s a general approach I was (and still I am) curious how to build up a translucent ‘narrative space’ to communicate – and also self-defend – through that.
snippets
“ She was a persona since the beginning, and as such she functions as a shield. Her existence itself is already ridiculous and embarrassing – I found it interesting for this very reason. She is a shield that will never be identical to its inventor. I was always interested in this hiding/transforming process in literature – a fiction populated by characters – they are always half-invented. I find this process really close to the method of how we live a daily life – that is through our own narrative. It is always deformed to make it acceptable and digestible to ourselves.
This distinction is the key in creative processes, and I see analogies between exhibiting an appropriated object in a white cube and this distinctive form of character creation. I was always curious about the internal mental processes, so it was necessary to set a boundary to pretend (or rather represent) a gap. The more I focus on the exact mental process the less I can define this demarcation (this became a dangerous convergence/note from 2025). I used a phrase during my presentation at the Skautský Institute (Prague, 2017) and I gave the presentation the title Thick Skin.
Series of dystopic Kinder-like figurines: educative, explanatory models of daily life activities, norms in a given society. 29 pieces. Miniature, painted plaster, variable size. 2015
“So to finally answer the question – this thick skin, this shield is Vera Nimova. (...) How do I see it now? The defense is already internalized, so the persona itself is no longer as interesting as its function. It is less schizophrenic, more abstract and less focused on gender or identity ( from 8 yrs of distance, this was not the case - note from 2025 ) – like the cyborg of Donna Haraway. A biomechanical sculpture during sublimation.“
“This is an unfortunate coincidence that my first years after graduating fell into the exact period of the increasing reinforcement of ......... I was really sensitive to these happenings but not radical enough to become politically active. In 20.... and 20...., we needed to digest several changes within the internal cultural politics: important and drastic changes in the education system and the following demonstrations; the disturbing and frightening economic situation of art universities, especially the ...................................; the infiltration of state influence in decision-making, like the government’s influence in the awarding of scholarships. The feeling was a bit similar to attacking a crystal palace with a hammer. I would say that nearly the whole art scene was vibrating, but not in a good way. It was a bit similar to a small but collective trauma. It was frightening, to be honest. “
Snippet from ‘The Worker of The Month’
3D animation. 2016
It happened
already several years ago, and what do the micro societies and individuals do in such a situation – they try to react and learn from the changes. To be a bit cynical, it seems to me that we are really good at one thing only – surviving. But this also forced the scene to work with the situation – several small, independent organizations and fellowships were created and, also as a statement, ................. was born. In my case, it forced me to draw up my near future – the paths among which I can choose. I decided to not apply for scholarships, and decided to build a dual life, with a daily job coupled with artistic independence. This freedom was a hugely inspirational advantage in the beginning, but the balance is fragile and for a while I have been feeling the limitations of this pseudo-independency from the art scene. “
(2018-January)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Work-In-Progress stills from the 3D scene. Madness, oppression and corruption. Made with Autodesk Maya. 2016
“So why
a Russian outsider artist? Why the name Nimova. This bald, antipathetic, grim portrait with a bleeding tie. An Idol of a wished male. And the context is only given by a Russian name with more or less defined obsession: outsider artist(a) with a sadly romantic face. An unknown lady with chic somewhere in Middle-Eastern Europe. ‘Nimova‘ as a quibble — really simply; from Veronika/il nome/NOVE/ova. Nothing special behind – at least a new name as disappearance in a virtual way. “
a Russian outsider artist? Why the name Nimova. This bald, antipathetic, grim portrait with a bleeding tie. An Idol of a wished male. And the context is only given by a Russian name with more or less defined obsession: outsider artist(a) with a sadly romantic face. An unknown lady with chic somewhere in Middle-Eastern Europe. ‘Nimova‘ as a quibble — really simply; from Veronika/il nome/NOVE/ova. Nothing special behind – at least a new name as disappearance in a virtual way. “
Or a symbol of how a traumatized mind/society can split in two.
Dystopic, fictive Kinder-like figurine (The Arrogant) urinating on his own shadow. Miniature, painted plaster figure. 2015
“Also a reaction or joke with the phobia in Hungarian politics (before it’s about-turn) of Russia. Veronika Romhány (myself) was always a fan of Russian literature and the classical avant-garde movements in the 20th Russia, notably very left-wing. In 2013 at the time of the birth of Nimova (later Nimova Projeckt) it was only a tiny odor in this Name&Identity choice and Romhány herself did not even guess that the term of Russian (authoritarian, homophobic and racist) influence in politics and the economy will play a more and more important role in Hungarian government’s decisions. How tricky life is. This is the last thing Veronika would count with. “
/2015
Dystopic, fictive Kinder-like figurine (The Boss) standing in the back. Miniature, painted plaster figure. 2015