372 x 206 cm
His large installation entitled The Museum of Proletarian Culture (2012) looked at the changes in artistic practice that have occurred in Russia throughout the last thirty years – from the amateur art of the late Soviet era to the commercialized post-Soviet cultural practices and the more recent self-expression via contemporary social networks. Thus, the exhibition becomes a whole installation where it is impossible to distinguish architecture from assemblage, facts from fantasy, document from fiction. It is a museum of museums where viewers find themselves in the era of didactic exhibitions; whereby the main protagonists are workers, engineers, and amateur artists, and finally replaced by the creative class of 1990s and 2000s. Sdelay sam or “do it yourself” is a work in progress described by the artist as a research in the tradition of the Soviet and post-Soviet culture of non-professional worker’s folk art. “Usually ordinary people in the Soviet Union had no opportunity to frequently change the furniture according to their taste. But they could do it by themselves! It was during that period that workers’ amateur creativity flourished, exemplified in techniques such as woodcarving, hammered ironwork or amateur furniture design. It was part of free time, type of creative hobby. It was called ‘creative relaxation’. The strict division between work and leisure during the era of late socialism made this creativity possible. It was an extremely democratic art and this is what still inspires me today.”
Arseny Zhilyaev is arguably one of the most influential contemporary Russian artists of his generation. For Zhilyaev, his medium of choice is the exhibition itself. His practice is deeply rooted in the study of presentation and display of artworks, histories and social processes. His multi-faceted installations combine historical fact with fiction in imagining new possibilities and futures. Inspired by Soviet and Marxist Museology, Zhilyaev often turns to Russian Cosmism and its philosophies of the universal museum. To trace Zhilyaev’s work, one should span from the avant-garde of the 1920’s to the ‘shock therapy’ of the 1990’s in Russia. As a member of the young generation of Russian artists, Zhilyaev looks at the changes of his country through the 20th century to compose his works. With a specific attention of art’s relations to politics, education and pedagogy, Arseniy Zhilyaev reflects on the different roles of the museum and exhibition making. Despite the current use of art as entertainment, Zhilyaev wants to rethink the museum as an educational institution connecting art and history.
“Learning”: Memory, Precision, Uncertainty in a 5-hour Durational Performance at National Gallery Singapore | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Arnaud Bouvier "Learning”, choreographed by Liz Santoro and Pierre Godard February 25, 2019 By Jocelyn Chng (440 words, three-minute read) Part of National Gallery Singapore’s special programme Performing Spaces that explores how space can be a “living organism” facilitating encounters between performers and audiences, Learning takes place over two weekends in March 2019...
For many years Tripp has been involved in reviving Karuk ceremonies that had been discontinued for decades, he developed his signature abstract style, based in Karuk design, ceremonial regalia forms, and related cultural and political iconography...
Rachel Perry Sews the Passage of Time Skip to content Rachel Perry, “FlowFlex Covid Test: Big Swiss” (2023), wool and silk on canvas with artist frame, 10 x 19 3/4 inches (all photos Julie Smith Schneider/ Hyperallergic ) Baby beets, lipstick, baking cups, cream cheese, and a COVID-19 antigen home test...
Reading in isolation: ‘Others’ is Not a Race and Interpreter of Winds | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles April 9, 2020 By Kathy Rowland (913 words, 4-minute read) Last November, when there was nary a thought for social distancing, and Corona conjured up visions of lime wedges and grimy bars, I reread Rex Shelley’s 1991 debut novel, The Shrimp People ...
Animating Democracy Transitions & Appreciations | Americans for the Arts Jump to navigation Americans for the Arts Arts Action Fund National Arts Marketing Project pARTnership Movement Animating Democracy Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram YouTube Load Picture Home News Room Animating Democracy Transitions & Appreciations Hello Guest | Login Animating Democracy Transitions & Appreciations Monday, December 19, 2022 Having launched the Animating Democracy program in 1999, Co-Directors Barbara Schaffer Bacon and Pam Korza have decided that 2022 completes their tenure providing program leadership for this transformative initiative...
Book Review: "Excavations, Interrogations, Krishen Jit & Contemporary Malaysian Theatre" | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles September 12, 2018 By Felipe Cervera (1600 words, eight-minute read) Excavations, Interrogations, Krishen Jit & Contemporary Malaysian Theatre , edited by Charlene Rajendran, Ken Takiguchi and Carmen Nge, is a long overdue resource that sheds light on important aspects of the cultural, artistic, and political histories of Malaysian contemporary theatre—and, by extension, some medullar elements of Singaporean theatre too...
Klimt painting lost for nearly a century to be auctioned after resurfacing in Austria Skip to main content Klimt painting lost for nearly a century to be auctioned after resurfacing in Austria A late painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt has resurfaced in a private collection and will be sold in April, Viennese auction house Kinsky said Thursday...