(2019-ongoing) Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok

The title of the current project – Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok – translates from Russian as image (or appearance), edge (or slice), and remnant. The project reiterates fragments of appropriated Soviet-era images in combination with collected Soviet-era objects. Wall-based installations consist of Soviet-era materials juxtaposed with sections of film stills showing domestic objects, acquired from Soviet films of the 1970s-80s; portions of the constructions were photographed and printed on clear film to then be reincorporated into the constructions.

The piece History of the Communist Party of the USSR consists of a found book of the same title, and a watercolour study on Soviet-era paper based on a film still of a burning USSR History textbook from a 1990 Soviet film. December 28 1991 is a similar assemblage of found, culturally specific and outdated material, combined with a painted study of a specific section of visual ephemera. Both works are constructed around self-reflexivity – one depicting the symbolic destruction of USSR history emerging from an actual obsolete USSR history book, the other reflecting a partially concealed newspaper image that is mimetically expanded as a refraction on the reflective surface. Painting is utilized here as an afterimage, contriving scrupulous familiarity with specific pieces of historical debris. As assembled combinations, the works are both self-negating and self-representational, affirming themselves as mere appearances of diffused cultural matter.

Also see: Incidental Television in Soviet Films

Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok, 2020, installation view.

Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok (1 & 2), 2020, Soviet-era objects and materials, inkjet prints on paper and clear fillm. Installation view.

Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok (3 & 4), 2020, installation view.

Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok (1), 2020, 2′ x 2′ x 4″, Soviet-era objects and materials, inkjet prints on paper and clear fillm.

Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok (1), 2020, detail.

Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok (2), 2020, 3′ x 5′ x 5″, Soviet-era objects and materials, inkjet prints on paper and clear fillm.

Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok (2), 2020, detail.

Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok (3), 2020, 4′ x 5.5′ x 4″, Soviet-era objects and materials, inkjet prints on paper and clear fillm.

Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok (3), 2020, detail.

Obraz, Obrez, Ostatok (4), 2020, 2′ x 3′ x 4″, Soviet-era objects and materials, inkjet prints on paper and clear fillm, silkscreen on Soviet-era fabric, silkscreen on paper, semitransparent red acetate.