Contemporary perception of light, by changing the appearance of the globe, has totally changed our conception of time and space. New technologies also shortened inter-cultural distances.
The most valuable was considered to be dissemination of information, which cast the struggle for basic freedoms. New technologies also played major role in the fields of sciences, medicine, industry and trade. At the same time it is impossible not to notice the serious damages caused by technology.
The world is faced with serious ecological catastrophes: general warming, severe growth of population, biological distortions, etc. It is necessary to realize that the destiny of the Globe depends upon each person’s choice. Present situation increases the responsibility of everyone, especially that of an artist. Old traditions and new technologies can have unpredictable consequences.
How is it possible to overcome brutal expressions of patriarchal dominance, lack of tolerance and senseless wastefulness, and defend life on the globe at the same time?
We conceive the world by images. They show us where to go, what to do, even what to feel. Images are blessed with magical power; their international language is capable of uniting people, and exposing critical issues.
Eric Burn insists that art as opposed to science exhibits the desirable image of the world. If science helps recognition of the environment, art, by showing the desirable, exposes feelings of the man and the society. Matisse compared real artistic creation with soft and comforting sofa, which like medicine relieves the headache.
Art’s strength is in exaggeration of reality. In art we find something which does not exist in life, and we try to make life resemble art. Works of art which strive towards the concept of “more humane than humane” are not mere optimism. Works of art comprise a part of our reality, thus change the reality.
“New Locality” project is intended to expose the identity of contemporary man in the era of cultural globalization, technological revolution and biological distortion.
It consists of 15 independent canvasses, which are also complementary of each other. Computer generated digital animations are transferred on hexagonal surfaces of canvas by oil paint. By combining principle of surrealistic spontaneity and artistic independence by computer, and adding industrial aesthetics of Pop Art I am trying to find new perspectives for painting.
Digital technologies ease working with images greatly. Every new thing gives birth to yet another one. New forms of art reject those social behaviors, which are subject to improvement but are slowed down due to conformity. By combining traditional and contemporary techniques I am trying to explore possible coexistence of the new and the old, as well as the artificial and the natural.
By showing “mythological existence” of images reminiscing fusion of human body, machines and plants I try to create desire for concentration and disintegration, to relocate the viewer to another reality, where desire and implementation are not separated. Art is sublimation of sub-conscious drives of the society. Artist is the conduit which paints society’s dreams. The space between the artist and his creation may be called principle of creation. By being led by stereotypes, culture contradicts art. To get out of cultural limitations artists create different principles. The principle of self-generation is one of these. It is the key for opening closed doors. It is a self-expression technique for getting close to real desires.
An artist using different creative principles is similar to a viewer who looks at his own creation by someone else’s eyes. The desire for giving freedom to material changes hierarchic, vertical relations to horizontal ones with equal communicative capability. This is based on the conviction that every object is autonomous and has not been created to serve man.
In canvases presented in the “New Locality” project recycling of material has also important significance. Migration of images from the internet to the personal computer, and from there to the canvases at the studio and back again to the internet, reiterate the significance of flexible relocation and waste-less productivity of contemporary society. The new media by mixing with natural materials create organic fusion, which seems to soften the nationalistic fears of loss of identity inherited from the agriculture age.
Contemporary artist by means of contemporary archeology and communications creates the history of man from stone-age to date. This new multi-cultural and chronological art is frightening and fascinating at the same time. It shows us the inevitable future of the mankind. In difference from apocalyptic myths of vernacular codes of ethics, new locality creates new stories of rescuing the world.
In this project by showing the processes of contemporary cultural diffusion I try to ask whether industrial progress has resulted in expansion of man’s territorial dominance, or the man himself has been subjected to absolute domination of the world of his own creation.
