The Trams
by Jakub · 18 June 2026 · Art, Music & Culture
Twelve drawings about Brno trams — rejected. The gallery director: the subject resists significance. Jakub: that was intentional. She: that's a problem. He doesn't know who's right. The uncertainty might be the most honest thing about it. The drawings hang in his flat. The trams don't mean anything and look exactly right.
In 2019 I submitted a series of drawings to a gallery in Brno — twelve pieces about the city's tram system, which is not as boring as it sounds, or maybe it is exactly as boring as it sounds and that was the point. The gallery director responded after three weeks. She said the work was technically accomplished but that she wasn't sure what it was trying to say, and that the trams specifically felt like a subject resisting significance rather than achieving it.
I've thought about this quite a lot. I think she was right that the trams were resisting significance. I thought that was what I was doing intentionally. She thought it was a problem. I still don't know which of us is correct, and I've come to think that this uncertainty might be the most honest thing about the whole project.
The drawings are on the wall of my flat now. The trams don't mean anything and they look exactly right.
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