Props by András Böröcz: Jagger van Vliet's Highlights

By JAGGER VAN VLIET, October 31, 2026.

Lord forgive me, I am an addict. There’s no use hiding it! I’m a no-good fiend for any kind of Dadaist art. When I moved to The City, I thought I’d be able to kick my habit; go cold turkey. But there’s only so much you can do. When I was contacted by Elza Kayal Gallery and asked to tour the work of Hungarian avant-gardist, András Böröcz, it proved impossible to get that old monkey off my back. 

Böröcz is not a Dadaist per se, but all the hallmarks were there. His work used humor and absurdisms like a conduit to process a life spent in the underground art scene under a brutal communist dictatorship. Now, at age 70, Böröcz is still an avid performance artist, world builder, and, as was the case for this exhibition, prop maker.

Room Service, 2013 Carved pencil, walnut, ebony, mahogany 13" x 9.5" x 8"

The Props exhibit featured a selection of Böröcz staples; through-lines that stretched back to his underground days. Böröcz’s father was a coal miner. Consequently, you’re likely to find lemons strewn throughout his work, a surreal interpretation of the canary in the coal mine. Elsewhere in the gallery were sculptures made from pencils and walnut shells, another set of Böröcz trademarks.  

The piece titled Pendulum made for a neat little bit of Dada junk food; a wooden cage with a hammer and horseshoe protruding at odd, albeit precise angles. When you set the thing into motion, the whole sculpture moved like a comic metronome, set to a meter only Böröcz could truly know. 

Color Palette, (2022-2026) 7'4" X 4" X 3', easel, 47 double-sided decorated palettes 12" X 8" each.
 

The pencil sculptures were the clearest evidence of Böröcz’s enduring technical skill. Carved from Japanese pencils (apparently the best quality for woodworking) these figurines were a step beyond anthropomorphic. Böröcz possessed an uncanny ability to imbue these characters with something more than life: genuine personality. Every limb was posed perfectly, each rangy appendage positioned just so. Whether balancing a carton of eggs atop a rocking chair, or fighting to free themselves from a matchbook, there was a daintiness that was never far from the forefront. 

The largest works were duelling sculptures made from painter’s palettes. For Color Palette, the palettes themselves were painted with all manner of faces, playing cards, and chimneys. Böröcz affixed these palettes to an easel, building outward until the entire piece took on a floral look, or perhaps a many-mutated mushroom. Cyclops, by comparison, offered a cleaner throughline, with the palettes simply being used to decorate a tight knot of found tree branches. 

Szikra, Memory game & Szikra Matchbook (2026) 3"X 5'' X 1" - 36 drawings in a printer matchbox with Rizo technique. 
 

At the door, hand-drawn Böröcz illustrations lay strewn on dozens of cards. They were held inside a Szikra-brand matchbook, and depicted absurd scenes from a revolutionary youth. On the cards, recurring characters from Böröcz’s oeuvre danced, pranced, and slaughtered each other in rapid succession. If I wanted my Dada fix, it’s safe to say I got it at the Elza Kayal Gallery. I’m back on the stuff and the high is divine. WM