Original artwork description:

Urban philosophy

In this collection stylization and form brevity reach their utmost. Industrial philosophy represents compact thoughts that are often ironic, conveyed to the viewer through simplified and geometrized forms, so harmonious with our routine everyday life. Yet, this said, these works, just as all my oeuvre, remain ornamental and very rhythmic.

Dynamics. Structure. Scheme. System. QR code. Network. Web. Perspectives. Tunnel. Volumes. Crystal lattice. Cage. Coordinate system. Architectural framework. Construction girders. Power wires. Machinery. Stairs. Runway. Bridges. Rails… The row of associations of these canvases is infinite, though I consciously avoid excessive illustrativeness or naturalness of images and even my inherent decorativeness totally gives way to conceptual generalization.

Names of the works are important for perception of these canvases as they form a question.

Rigid geometrical forms add up to the ornament of a big tired city. Ornament is the universal information carrier. It is a bridge from the past to the present. Modern ornament in my works often personifies informational smog of metropolis! What are we going to leave to those who will come after us? Megabytes of digital rubbish and lyricism of social networks? Wires habitually cut the sky, global internet web seemed to connect us, but separated us in the long run, industrialization made our life more comfortable, but having complicated it infinitely.

Urban lace cuts the air of the sky and weighs on the viewer, creates tension in the picture, forces him to search for the answers to existential questions, a modern man simply does not have time for. This pictorial cycle is an attempt to pull the viewer out of the hustle and bustle of life and literally make him philosophize on the essential. That is where the name of the pictorial collection comes from. The works of this cycle pose more questions than provide ready answers. The aim of these works is to induce the viewer to think, to reason, to analyze. To think independently, outside political dogmas, imposed censorship or momentary passing trends. It is easy to be pseudo dissident, when being one is a mainstream of today, but it is much harder to remain a conscious person and most importantly a decent Human being.

This is an attempt to wrest an inquisitive mind from the clutch of virtual reality, manipulation mechanisms of which are sharpened to suppress the will of an individual for the purpose of commercial gain. The scale of cyber war is far greater than the scale of wars of the past. And fake subscribers to Instagram appear to become ‘Dead souls’ of the 21st century. It is extremely fashionable nowadays to buy a couple dozen of thousands of such ‘serfs’ to create an image of a virtual landlord.

Coming back to the subject of ornament – for me this is also the path to understanding the nature of things, divine origin of all things and the way to the Absolute. An ordered ornamental system of crystal lattice, a cell, a molecule, an atom… The theory of infinity, but directed inward, to the essence, not outward. The functioning of complex bio systems is subject to this divine principle. Just as a complex and ornate pattern of a Persian carpet is subject to precisely defined geometric grid. Hence, man’s craving for knowledge of God through ornament, symbol, geometric abstraction – infinite flow of meander, rangoli meditation, Arabic ligatures, solar signs of ancient civilizations, a powerful and laconic sign of a cross.

A cross as the intersection of man’s earthly life horizontal with his divine vertical.

Life is a straight line section between the dates of birth and death. The aesthetics of a straight line is close to man. Craving for ordering, structuring and symmetry are inherent in human nature. Aspiration to turn a segment of human life into infinite vector of a progressive thought, sensational discovery or creative achievement is the lot of a very few.

Movements of mind and soul create visual structures on the canvas plane. They shape their own physics, optics and the world structure in its extreme closeness and almost infinite remoteness. Each canvas bears a tremendous semantic load. The works of this series are growing hyperboles, near which it is difficult to maintain balance.

The study of interaction of spontaneous plasticity in living nature and linearity of the mind of civilization continue to interest me greatly. But the main question remains – what is the role of a Man in this interaction? The aim and the meaning of Man’s life?

Materials used:

oil paints

Tags: