|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Mystery of Light. Solveig
and other installations of Leonid Tishkov In the days before New Year's and Christmas, from 20 to 30 December, audio and video installations by the Moscow artist and caricaturist Leonid Tishkov entitled Solveig and Apocrypha were shown in the exhibition hall of the State Hermitage's Youth Education Center. The showing was organized within the context of the Topical Art of the 20th - 21st Centuries program. One of the best known Russian masters of his generation, Leonid Tishkov is the author of unbelievable mythological beings: the Vodolazy, Dabloids, Stomaki. He is a very successful painter, book publisher, illustrator, graphic artist, caricaturist, poet, playwright, sculptor, composer and organizer of exhibitions. His illustrations for Yevgeni Zamyatin's book We brought him the Grand Prix of the Leipzig International Book Exhibition in 1989. Ever since the mid-80s, he has been engaged in painting, graphic art, special edition books and writing plays. He is the author of books on creatures: Dabloids, Zheludok v pechali, Otsemat, Stomaki. His play Dabloids was staged in theaters in the USA based on his own script (Hip Pocket Theatre, Durham, 1993 and the Mussetter-Struble Theatre, Ivanston, 1995). Tishkov's works are held in many museums around Russia and abroad, including the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the A.S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow) and the Victoria & Albert Museum (London). The installation Apocrypha tells the story of Christmas. Bringing together images from recollections of childhood and Christian symbols, and using old family clothing for his handmade objects, the author creates magical scenes of Christmas. His Moon and Star shone in the exhibition area. The installation Apocrypha represents yet another approach by the artist to the theme of the sacral, an attempt to present the world and everything in it as being of divine substance. In the installation Solveig, the artist uses media to create a snowy landscape. The frozen designs come to life have become the Cosmos and the spectator is a wanderer, going back to the times when people firmly believed in the magical power of art. As Leonid Tishkov says in his own words: "Memory is a desert which we populate with with our imagination. In the landscape of my memory," he observes, " one can see a small Urals town, the smokestacks of factories, a snow-covered pond and the small figure of a boy who is going to school along a narrow path in a snowy field. Along this path I travel back into the past, resurrecting the times of an ideal universe in which childhood is a time of spiritual profundity and infinite blinding white snow. In this snowy landscape of my memory, there distinctly appear points in time: father carrying a Christmas tree on a sledge; mother washes the linen in a dark hole in the ice; a little house on the edge of a pond; a horse harnessed to a carriage; a haystack; brothers; dogs; fishermen and passersby; a cavern in the snow; an angel in a snowdrift; a cemetery. Snow is time. It is a white imaginary landscape in which I position my personal recollections. It is precisely here, on the barely visible white horizon that the earthly and transcendental spheres combine." On 20 December, university students who take part in the creative sections of the Hermitage Student Club were invited to join a master class conducted by Leonid Tishkov devoted to photo performances. The artist let the young people experiment with light boxes and items represented in his installations. He spoke about the secrets of creating his "poetic image photography." The exhibition was open until 30 December 2006. |
|
|||||
|
Copyright
© 2006 State Hermitage Museum |
