Vladimir Nasedkin

TRANSIT
(paintings)

25. 03. 10 - 25. 04. 10

Opening reception March, 25 at 6 p.m.

Nowadays we travel thank to INTERNET without leaving our place and we overcome the distances, which we've dreamed about. Travelling via hyperlinks through the landscapes of the World Wide Web is an imitation of a trip, but this is our today's reality.

First impressions of a trip in one or another country I get in the program Google Earth, where I can make satellite photos of the most expressive and interesting landscapes from each altitude I desire. Afterwards I get impressions and emotions directly at the place, where I travel in reality, to create my pictures with the local different colored grounds.

Drawing the geographical and geometrical elements of maps, I try to decipher the landscapes and to evaluate them aesthetically. It's a kind of cultural geography and new urbanistics, where the plan of the city appears as a social and cultural text. This change of perspective and the feeling, that you can touch the sky, discover new visions of space, about what I've never known before, while standing on the Earth. A virtual image together with the reality of the PLACE gives birth to a new truth - THE TRUTH OF ART.

Google Earth. Norway. Airport of Bergen. 2008-09, È.Í., 130È150 ÓÍ

Four Answers of VLADIMIR NASEDKIN
to Alexander Petrovichev's Questions

A. Petrovichev It is your fourth exhibition at the Krokin Gallery. In this case it is called Transit. What is it about?

V. Nasedkin I travel a lot, and a couple of years ago those trips of mine acquired a special, I can say, additional meaning. As an artist I have formulated a sort of program for myself, which on the whole is quite simple. Before flying or going somewhere, I check out Google Earth on the Internet and scrupulously study my future destination. The Internet makes it possible today to travel without leaving one's home and to visit places that we have not even dreamed about. I am aware that following hyperlinks across the expanses of the worldwide net is, of course, merely imitation traveling, but such is the reality of our day. I get the first impressions of the projected trip precisely from Google Earth, where I can take the satellite down to the desired height and photograph the topography and layouts of all sorts of industrial zones, airports and cities and towns that I find expressive and interesting to me. Much later there come other impressions and emotions directly from the place, which I visit in reality and where I make my pictures using variegated sands and earth of precisely that locality.

A. Petrovichev You actively use the words 'geometry' and 'geography,' which share the common root 'geo' meaning earth, in your vocabulary. Does verbality have a certain meaning for you as a contemporary artist?

V. Nasedkin In this case geography is but a multifarious directory of my project. At first glance - be it on the display or through a plane porthole - the selected territories are seen as geometrical abstraction, even though they are in fact absolutely concrete documental landscapes. As for geometry, it is always present wherever there is man. It is the geometry of roads, airports, industrial zones, construction sites and bedroom communities. It inspires me and perfectly fits the system of my art and its key stylistic principles, adding special meaning to pure abstraction. So no one will now accuse me of formalism - they are landscapes from a bird's-eye view! Of course, I'm not original here, but what matters to me is to be consistent and systemic rather than original.

Google Earth. Norway. Airport of Bergen. 2008-09, È.Í., 130È150 ÓÍ

A. Petrovichev I think what you do looks not so much as painting, but rather as paving - like paving roads with the help of earth, sand and pebbles. This makes your works visually and physically heavy. And in these paved canvases you gradually abandon pure geometrical abstraction in favor of meticulous documentation of reality. When did you start using those grounds, sands and earth, which are so uncharacteristic of traditional techniques?

V. Nasedkin There is nothing new about the use of ground, sand, etc. I was no discoverer. Many have poured a lot of substances onto canvas before me, Picasso, for instance. I did the first works of that type in 1988, when I came to Armenia. I was fascinated to see Armenians visiting their temples cross themselves and touch the stone wall with their hands. I was very much impressed by the importance of that physical tactility. On that occasion I brought five kilos of earth from Armenia. Then I brought earth from Tibet, Nepal, and that set the ball rolling. Practically, wherever I go I bring back earth or sand. I never cheat. For instance, canvases made in Norway are so dark because I used local sand from the fjords to make them. I am quite conceptual about it. It has become a fundamental component of my art. I see in it something unresolved and vague, yet having special meaning and importance. Natural color and texture have replaced color scheme and painting as such in my works. Painting as such is absent because there is no brush movement, nor brushstroke. Instead the surface is constructed of textured modules, echoing both my graphic works and metal objects.

A. Petrovichev Is the choice of your subjects accidental or determined by your transit through countries and continents that has intrigued you by the geometrical 'ornament' observed from a satellite? Say, an airport becomes a fundamental motif. Is it a romantic feeling for space or just space as such?

V. Nasedkin Over the past year or so I have held several painting symposiums in Romania, Vladikavkaz, New York, Austria and Norway. I transit through Norway, Romania and South Ossetia at this exhibition. These places are responsible for the subject matter of the pictures exhibited today. They were made a year ago right there in situ from material found literally under my feet. As for the airports, one usually comes first into contact with some country through its airport. And the geometry of the airport gives one the first surprise and delight. This is only the beginning, though: I go deep into the actual topography of the country of my choice. By showing the geographical and geometrical elements of local layouts, I try to decipher the landscape and to estimate it from the aesthetic point of view. This is a sort of cultural geography and new urbanity, in which we see the layout of a city or landscape as a socio-cultural text. This change of perspective and this possibility to nearly touch the sky gives me a new vision of space, of which I had no idea while staying on the ground. Meanwhile, a virtual image combined with local reality gives birth to a new truth - the truth of art.

WORKS FROM THE PROJECT


Google Earth. Norway. Airport of Stavanger. 2008-09, È.Í. ,120È150 ÓÍ







PHOTOS OF EXPOSITION