Kyrylo Protsenko presented his project of an academic version of living quarters decoration at Kyiv’s RA Gallery. However, mere academic interest in this artist’s work is practically impossible. Protsenko is expert in the social enrichment of classical painting genres. Decency and propriety in his project balance on the edge of true novelty of contents. Landscapes and still lifes ironically move away from their natural environment and fall within a closed space of illusion.
Comfort-Borzhomi shows a double content of piety and peace stimulates one’s taste for idleness, luxury, and delight. It symbolizes the poles of social life and culture expressed by the art.
The Crimea, Health Center of Our Motherland reflects the heritage of large scale Soviet painting: it depicts the richness of our nature in an accurate and comprehensible way. In an optimistic burst, the landscape is transformed into a subject of individual possession, an emblem of air and sea full of depth and light.
Human dwelling personalizes a momentary pause in the general dynamic of life. To fill in this pause, there are small things for personal and whole-hearted delight. Daily routine blends with ritual, and the reality becomes estranged, giving place to personal life. Encroaching on his exhibit’s concept on the world of private dwelling, Protsenko strives to agitate the spectator. Loving Hearts is a good example of this. Two vital human organs are depicted in a naХve realistic manner against the background of an expressive sunset localize the narration. The picture leaves a strange impression, which is an advantage from the standpoint contemporary art; however, this strong effect does not call forth stupor or twilight: the organs demonstrate a tendency for affect, while their phantom movement demonstrate an elasticity of gesture and rhythm. According to clinical experience, this acts as a sedative.
The still lifes for a kitchen represented in the other gallery’s hall bewitch the audience, reminding it of prosperity, peace, and tolerance. Photographs on transparent plastic are placed against a background composed of two pieces of wallpaper with different patterns. They show a gray and black spectrum of severely ranged objects from a Khrushchev period food store breath with a cold joy of a victory over oneself and self-denial for the sake of beauty as such. Mundane happiness in the background consisting of the wallpaper’s pale flowers and strips does not fascinate the spectator but is an evidence of its being completely adapted.
Artistic objects in the form of toy plastic furniture are arranged in the exhibition in strict correspondence with the author’s concept. Barbie furniture set painted in Ciccolina-style corporative pink colors aspires to originality free from taste dependence.
In general, this artistic statement is witty in terms of both concept and realization. Protsenko did not betray his role of a subtle conceptual artist with no signs of impelling storm in the striving for sensation.
