Cтатьи
Portrait of a Stranger in Suit
Irina Tchmyreva, 2008
Vadim Guschin’s creativity is already familiar to the readers of Russian ZOOM. This time the magazine represents a new project — history of manswear.
Guschin’s movement in the art of photography up to the present series could be described as safe development in the vein of traditional black-and-white photography, successful development in dialogue with intellectually corrupted spectator adoring culturologic allusions and — narrower — allusions to the history of art. This movement can be described as development of photographic phenomenology in spirit of the D¸sseldorf school, cataloguing, but not dischargedly tepid, objected; just the opposite, very personal, from time to time frightening with darkness and infernal coldness of the author’s subconscious.
The cycle of portraits of clothes hanging on an empty chair is turned more to the present and deeper to research of the image of modern protagonist. “Any work of art is about a man, a man is the protagonist of art creativity.” Repetitions of this text with variations accompany us through all extent of studying the history of arts. Up to the modern time, where there is a place for ascertaining of disappearance of the protagonist.
This absurdity is like advertising of beer, in which mugs and bottles are happily heated at a fireplace and enjoy sights of a night city from the height of a penthouse. In the context of real time this picture — an escape of the creators of modern advertising out of the state prohibition to use human images when advertising alcohol. But from the viewpoint of psychoanalysis of creativity of advertising makers it is “slip of the tongue”, a signal of absence of interest to human beings, designation of them as “consumers” for which purpose replacement of an average person with a product of his/her consumption pass well. Absence of humans in advertising speaks of our time as of an age of total disappearance of humans not less than the literature or the fine depicting art does.
Once the intellectuals — as small children from a horror story — were voluptuously fainting from the idea of neutron bomb. There was no necessity to use it, the idea itself was enough, and the world, society and its separate representatives have gradually got used to the idea. The clothes designate their owner. They speak about him or her not less than the portrait of the face, and sometimes much more. And, as a next step of a logic construction — the thing replacing its owner designates his or her presence in all completeness. Any idea, even absurd in the beginning, gets gradually accustomed in the individuals’ consciousness and in the mentality of society.
Vadim Guschin’s jackets continue the line of RenÈ Magritte’s faceless man, become a modern version of surrealistic art. Clothes instead of humans — this is a dream, but a dream indiscernible in its trustworthiness from reality…
Staged, conceptual photography — a part of the space of art photography — is an admission to creative laboratory of the author, an exposure of his imaginations materialized in cleanliness, approaching the accuracy of the creative plan. In such photography the form demonstrates the idea quite well, every detail is set up in its place, and absence of details marks not only aspiration to formal generalization, but precise following the main idea of the work. The space of staged photography is absurd, as the images coming to the artist are absurd, as dreams are. Their form is mixture, their language is ciphered, and perusal of its codes is required, as a result of which everything comes back to the cleanliness of the statement. But the form of photographic work allows not only “to read” the idea, to apprehend it as information, but to experience the illusion of immersing into the idea as space. To experience the horror of a panic room visitor. A room without an owner. The clothes, which have conveniently settled down in his absence. People come to side-shows at will. But sometimes discoveries appear unpredictable.
Guschin’s movement in the art of photography up to the present series could be described as safe development in the vein of traditional black-and-white photography, successful development in dialogue with intellectually corrupted spectator adoring culturologic allusions and — narrower — allusions to the history of art. This movement can be described as development of photographic phenomenology in spirit of the D¸sseldorf school, cataloguing, but not dischargedly tepid, objected; just the opposite, very personal, from time to time frightening with darkness and infernal coldness of the author’s subconscious.
The cycle of portraits of clothes hanging on an empty chair is turned more to the present and deeper to research of the image of modern protagonist. “Any work of art is about a man, a man is the protagonist of art creativity.” Repetitions of this text with variations accompany us through all extent of studying the history of arts. Up to the modern time, where there is a place for ascertaining of disappearance of the protagonist.
This absurdity is like advertising of beer, in which mugs and bottles are happily heated at a fireplace and enjoy sights of a night city from the height of a penthouse. In the context of real time this picture — an escape of the creators of modern advertising out of the state prohibition to use human images when advertising alcohol. But from the viewpoint of psychoanalysis of creativity of advertising makers it is “slip of the tongue”, a signal of absence of interest to human beings, designation of them as “consumers” for which purpose replacement of an average person with a product of his/her consumption pass well. Absence of humans in advertising speaks of our time as of an age of total disappearance of humans not less than the literature or the fine depicting art does.
Once the intellectuals — as small children from a horror story — were voluptuously fainting from the idea of neutron bomb. There was no necessity to use it, the idea itself was enough, and the world, society and its separate representatives have gradually got used to the idea. The clothes designate their owner. They speak about him or her not less than the portrait of the face, and sometimes much more. And, as a next step of a logic construction — the thing replacing its owner designates his or her presence in all completeness. Any idea, even absurd in the beginning, gets gradually accustomed in the individuals’ consciousness and in the mentality of society.
Vadim Guschin’s jackets continue the line of RenÈ Magritte’s faceless man, become a modern version of surrealistic art. Clothes instead of humans — this is a dream, but a dream indiscernible in its trustworthiness from reality…
Staged, conceptual photography — a part of the space of art photography — is an admission to creative laboratory of the author, an exposure of his imaginations materialized in cleanliness, approaching the accuracy of the creative plan. In such photography the form demonstrates the idea quite well, every detail is set up in its place, and absence of details marks not only aspiration to formal generalization, but precise following the main idea of the work. The space of staged photography is absurd, as the images coming to the artist are absurd, as dreams are. Their form is mixture, their language is ciphered, and perusal of its codes is required, as a result of which everything comes back to the cleanliness of the statement. But the form of photographic work allows not only “to read” the idea, to apprehend it as information, but to experience the illusion of immersing into the idea as space. To experience the horror of a panic room visitor. A room without an owner. The clothes, which have conveniently settled down in his absence. People come to side-shows at will. But sometimes discoveries appear unpredictable.