1 Key moments in the development of my recent practice.
Balance, 2021, wood, paper, paint, adhesive tape, plaster, rope, cardboard, 109 x 50 x 18 cm.
One highlight for me is the sculptural compositions that I started doing a few years ago.
Equivocal, 2023, recycled newspapers, acrylic, water-based fixatives, plaster on canvas, 118 x 118 x 13 cm.
In addition, a turning point in my practice for me was the discovery in 2021 of my synaesthesia through the creation of a certain kind of colour work.
When you open your eyes, 2022, recycled newspapers, acrylic, plaster on canvas, 140 x 198 x 10 cm.
These colour fields themselves are the most amazing thing I have ever created.
Separately, it is worth noting the war that Russia started against Ukraine. It turned my whole life around once and for all. I was born and raised in Moscow. All my creativity was imbued with my culture. But after the outbreak of the war in February 2022, most of my acquaintances, and what is most painful, my family, which continues to live in Moscow, fully support the war. I have not spoken to my beloved mother for more than 6 months, but I cannot accept that she justifies violence and murder. There is no explanation for this.
2 Strengths that I observe both in my process and the works themselves and how I might build on these.
For the first time in my life, I 100% love what I do - these are colour fields from newspapers. This is my portrait, and I am used to working and improving myself. Starting from sports, which I do to be healthy, and to fiction, which gives me an unforgettable life experience and food for thought and reflection. Constant study of languages, lectures on philosophy and medicine, and much more deepens my understanding of the world and life, helping me to better understand people. If the colour-fields are me, then they can also work on themselves. Improve communication with people, involve viewers more through colour, shape, size, and figurativeness. My works can show more understanding of the world and life.
3 Connections or threads which I can see running through a number of projects that might present useful starting points or points of intersection.
In all my works there is an increased materiality, a desire to communicate and involve the viewer on a sensual level, this is most often a mini-observation of life situations and reflection on events.
4 Ways in which questions, propositions and ideas populate my work and influence and inform what I do.
My ideas come from life. I'm always interested in first ordering, and then the search for the root cause. I like to get to the bottom of things. Before the war, I was interested in colour and its effect on a person. Aesthetics. I was fascinated by the question of whether aesthetics and beauty can change the world for the better. After the war, now a year and six months later, I am interested again in beauty and aesthetics, but now in connection with aggression and ugliness. How can a person perceive the beautiful and aesthetic, and at the same time support the war and the death of thousands of people? At the same time, it is important for me that the material with which I work is involved in the process of conveying the idea. So, for example, I will not write a letter on paper simply because everyone has been doing this for five thousand years. If one needs to convey the idea in writing, then one needs to understand what material to do this and how to connect the idea with the material.
5 If I work across disciplines, what does the interplay between these areas bring to my working process? What are the questions these set-up?
I make objects for walls and sculptures, this mixing allows me to think on a different plane. For example, the motherland in the work on the wall will be red,
Homeland, 2022, paint, spray colours, plaster, paper on canvas, 106 x 126 x 9 cm.
and the motherland in the sculpture will be a lattice clogged with boards with luminous insides.
At home, 2023, recycled wood, metal, concrete, burlap, copper-coated paper, cardboard, newspapers; acrylic paint, sand, screws, nails, 63 x 72 x 66 cm.
This is a different expression.
In addition, if the colour fields are more attractive to viewers, then my sculptures are more repulsive, but I perceive this as a provocation for the untrained eye, callousness and immobility of thinking.
6 Where do I see areas for development? I will identify the problems and possibly the contradictions within the work. These may not be negative aspects of the work as such, but actually interesting, or useful, points for action.
My two types of work, in my opinion, are not very connected. But how to explain this and why, I still can not.
Colour fields are very fragile for galleries and some clients, and I like this vulnerability.
Sculptures are made from leftovers in my studio or collected materials for recycling, the audience perceives them as garbage, and I see this as inspiration and the boundlessness of art. I bring them to a high aesthetic level.
7 Are there unresolved areas that present possibilities for new work? How might I pick up on these and develop them further?
There are many unresolved issues. I always run out of time. The question of aesthetics, what it is, how it is, and how this concept changes over time - all of these have not been investigated. I always want to make more of my sculptural objects, but I was probably stopped by their common goal. I worked only with a specific plot or idea. And to develop a direction - no. I haven't implemented the project on the wall yet. Temporary, non-permanent and large colour spots.
8 Looking forward, what ambitions do I have for my work? At this point what would I like to achieve within/for the work itself? I will focus my thinking around the work as it exists in the studio/workspace rather than considering it’s life beyond i.e. in a gallery, exhibited or shared outside of the studio.
For me, showing works in a museum, gallery, or public art is an integral part of the work. I always create works with the thought of how the viewer will perceive it. Without a viewer, the artwork is not complete. I do not believe that if all of humanity dies out, then there will be art. Or rather, it will physically lie on the planet, but it will exist halfway. As a frame of a car, it will remain on the planet, but it will not drive, which means that the goal for which this object was created will not be achieved. My final goal is catharsis. So that a person becomes better after seeing the artwork so that he would never start a war; so that he is able to show empathy; that man strives for development, and so on.
In an ideal world, my dream is when a person would see my work and be reborn, understand something, something was resolved in him, and become better.
Such an honest reappraisal of my work gives me a sense of solidity. It's like laying the foundation for a new house. It seems that it is already clear how to build and what, there is a plan and it is even clear who will live in the house, but only this beginning of laying the foundation implies the beginning of progress and the construction of something significant.
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