CGD

Road To Nowhere

Well we know where we're going

But we don't know where we've been

And we know what we're knowing

But we can't say what we've seen

And we're not little children

And we know what we want

And the future is certain

Give us time to work it out

Yeah

Jindřich Janíček likes to use the lyrics of the songs he likes, mostly those that surround him, and so it is a good idea to surround oneself with them in a text reflecting on his last year's works.

Let's consider them a clue, another piece of the puzzle of how to understand not only the original impulse to tell a story but Janíček’s illustrations in general. We should probably be talking about drawing or illustration, but let's try for a moment to talk about narrative, that neglected part of the illustration. Jindřich, who draws all the time and is gradually rethinking his style, is first and foremost a storyteller. For him, the primary reason to tell a story always comes before drawing, a phenomenon that is rare, unappreciated and mostly unseen here.

The unseen storyteller and the seen illustrator. It could end with this sentence.

Coincidentally, when he was about to receive his first Illustrator of the Year award, he was in the places one of the books for which he is nominated this year narrates about. Where he will be at the time of this year’s awards ceremony is not yet known.

The seated illustrator's movement is another piece of the puzzle. It's not just the movement as in a movement to the place of the narrative, but a constant movement within the narrative.

What began with the thin volumes of Zbytečné reportáže has grown to more than 300 pages of Na západ severozápadní linkou, an unassuming travelogue drawn on the road.  Visually so similar to photographer Stephen Shore's books, only the narrative is different; it is the narrative of a European influenced by the visual identity of a country that influenced him more than that of his own country. The way in which Jindřich finds a home there is a situation that has befallen many, and like many Europeans before him, he is not lost there, but instead brings back what we have seen and known before, only in a different way.

Then there is only the refrain:

We're on a road to nowhere

We're on a road to nowhere

We're on a road to nowhere

We're on a road to nowhere

Tomáš Luňák