Victor Alimpiev: Radiant
If in his previous painting series Alimpiev relied on the physical presence of canvas and the thematic sequence of pieces as the signs of continuing action (for example in the series 鈥淏attle Afar鈥�), in the new series the artist experiments consistently with the measures of paintings and tries a new technique 鈥� drawing in canvas through carbon paper. The face of the British opera singer Kathleen Ferrier, a bowing girl, a back of the head, the fascist Brownshirts鈥� logo, plumes of smoke 鈥� all these appear before our eyes in recognizable forms but in conglomerations which disperse immediately in 鈥渟tarry鈥� pictures-doppelgangers, where silhouettes are given only allusively. The presence of those characters and themes is not explained directly. For Alimpiev the contralto of Kathleen Ferrier, for example, is an important external referent (鈥淚 paint parallel to the dimension where her voice sounds鈥�). Besides Ferrier is 鈥減retty as a picture鈥� and steadfast like many other opera singers of the first half of the XX century: her body as a whole is an instrument. With Alimpiev the Ferrier鈥檚 body is instrumental too, though we may not know it perceiving only its motionlessness. The logo 鈥淪S鈥� stands for synchronized bolts of lightning which is naturally impossible. For the artist those bolts are connected to the notion of 鈥渦nfathomable evil鈥�, impending like a weight at the outskirts of the artistic text.
Both in his imagery and in omissions and lacunas Alimpiev follows the path trodden by late Monet who discovered the first screen of modern painting, that is a pond鈥檚 surface. Alimpiev鈥檚 pictures resemble the streams of water with grass-blades like lines folding up in something solemn and alluring. With Monet a water surface being inseparable in our understanding from the illusion of depth is given as an active plane unlimited either by scenario or by frame. So, depth comes as a side effect of seeing the picture, like a sensation without evidence which is similar to evil brought up to mind by the SS logo. To see a water-lily 鈥� an object which the title of the picture and a lemon with beige spot on the canvas refer to 鈥� you must scramble through hundreds of conventions and approximations. That demands a habit of belief from a viewer 鈥� a capacity strongly connected to the process of reading an artistic text. In fact belief is the light of a projection, the fluctuation of particles between the transmitter and the screen.
If in his previous painting series Alimpiev relied on the physical presence of canvas and the thematic sequence of pieces as the signs of continuing action (for example in the series 鈥淏attle Afar鈥�), in the new series the artist experiments consistently with the measures of paintings and tries a new technique 鈥� drawing in canvas through carbon paper. The face of the British opera singer Kathleen Ferrier, a bowing girl, a back of the head, the fascist Brownshirts鈥� logo, plumes of smoke 鈥� all these appear before our eyes in recognizable forms but in conglomerations which disperse immediately in 鈥渟tarry鈥� pictures-doppelgangers, where silhouettes are given only allusively. The presence of those characters and themes is not explained directly. For Alimpiev the contralto of Kathleen Ferrier, for example, is an important external referent (鈥淚 paint parallel to the dimension where her voice sounds鈥�). Besides Ferrier is 鈥減retty as a picture鈥� and steadfast like many other opera singers of the first half of the XX century: her body as a whole is an instrument. With Alimpiev the Ferrier鈥檚 body is instrumental too, though we may not know it perceiving only its motionlessness. The logo 鈥淪S鈥� stands for synchronized bolts of lightning which is naturally impossible. For the artist those bolts are connected to the notion of 鈥渦nfathomable evil鈥�, impending like a weight at the outskirts of the artistic text.
Both in his imagery and in omissions and lacunas Alimpiev follows the path trodden by late Monet who discovered the first screen of modern painting, that is a pond鈥檚 surface. Alimpiev鈥檚 pictures resemble the streams of water with grass-blades like lines folding up in something solemn and alluring. With Monet a water surface being inseparable in our understanding from the illusion of depth is given as an active plane unlimited either by scenario or by frame. So, depth comes as a side effect of seeing the picture, like a sensation without evidence which is similar to evil brought up to mind by the SS logo. To see a water-lily 鈥� an object which the title of the picture and a lemon with beige spot on the canvas refer to 鈥� you must scramble through hundreds of conventions and approximations. That demands a habit of belief from a viewer 鈥� a capacity strongly connected to the process of reading an artistic text. In fact belief is the light of a projection, the fluctuation of particles between the transmitter and the screen.
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