Project "Pears"
My project "Pears" explores aspects of anthropomorphizing optics. I analyze the plasticity, formal qualities of the image and simultaneously actualize the legacy of the perception of the human figure, namely the female nude.
On the one hand, I develop and articulate the problem of the objectification of the female body that contemporary art has inherited from its historical predecessors. However, I turn to an ironic manner of representation, contextualizing the inherited givenness and reinterpreting it in a logic of post-irony, of metamodern easy lightness.
The pear as a subject of pictorial study is as historical as the nude. By constructing a metaphorical synthesis of the two figurative images, I emphasize the inexhaustible strength and vulnerability, the beauty and simplicity of the nude body. In this way, I translate the substantial critique of representation into an experience of aesthetic and ideological reinterpretation that is open to possible readings and conclusions, that is not stuffed with the dominant logic of beauty. I shift and defragment this logic and move it away from toxic contextuality.
A pear is a symbol of true love and longevity. It has a background — a flower of life. This is a very ancient ornament, which is important. If you take a closer look at these pears, the silhouettes of people emerge. At least, I've imagined them as such — try to guess! It seems to be Psyche, and there are The Three Graces, and there is Lucrezia.
Women's beautiful roundish figures from the canvas of Peter Paul Rubens inspired me to create this painting. Pears came alive talking in the shade of heaven's antique gardens. Look narrowly — in a moment they will tie in a smooth dance, just as Rubens's Graces, and take us into their magic world…
Pears
Once, while preparing for an exhibition, I was working on a still life with pears. At some point, I thought that they remind me of a story from childhood, when I was with my mother for the first time in a women's bath. The still life pears looked so much like the women in that memory.
So I began to use the image of a pear, for a metaphorical image of the female body. I focus on the topics of corporality, femininity, beauty, the transience of time and procreation.
The pear was not chosen by chance, as it seems to me, it becomes an understandable and indicative symbol. So the "intimate" is perceived as more general and accessible to the viewer. Moreover, the pear, as a symbol, has had certain meanings since ancient times.
In turn, the triptych "Pear — Morning, Day and Night" became directly autobiographical, which tells about my changing states and moods during the day.
