An exhibit called “UsA Generation,” which recently opened at the PinchukArtCenter, is the second to be held after the large show last fall made a name for the center. The first opening was highly publicized. A real fire even broke out, which in that context looked like part of the show. This time around, there were no accidents.
As the name of the show implies, the new exhibit features the works of young artists from Ukraine and the United States of America (respectively abbreviated to UA and USA). The works are mostly installations that the authors created specially for the show.
The Ukrainian side is represented by former members of the art group R.E.P. (Revolutionary Experimental Space), which declared itself at the Maidan during the memorable events in the fall of 2004. They regularly stir up the artistic milieu with frequent exhibits as well as bizarre acts. On Nov. 7, 2006, they went to the Maidan, where a nationalistic rally was taking place, wielding alternative slogans, such as: “We’ll pound your face for art!” or “Every person is an artist!” An R.E.P. activist named Zhanna Kadyrova used insulation foam and ceramic tiles to create a massive version of a crumpled colored candy wrapper.
Other Ukrainian participants resort to even more radical methods. Volodymyr Kuznetsov, under the influence of his studies at the textile department of the Lviv Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts, put a car in front of the entrance, an old red Mercedes shot through with a hammer drill so that the sinister holes form a kind of traditional ethnic ornament. His other piece is executed with a regular technique, but he used threads and fabric in an unusual way: he embroidered notes and pictures from a diary on white sheets.
Stanislav Voliazlovsky from Kherson scares visitors with old cushions that feature human-like monsters (“Diffusion of identity”). Oleksandr Semenov was friendlier in his composition “Beach” — on ordinary river sand he has placed round, “horned” mines, and in the background sounds the monotonous ticking of a metronome or clock. Lada Nakonechna and Ksenia Hnylytska sewed a giant neck-tie and hung it up.
A memorable part of the exhibit was a video film about a homeless woman, directed jointly by Mykola Ridny and Bella Lohachova. The directors did not make anything up: they simply filmed the everyday life of this person, who is happy in her own way.
The list of American participants of the exhibit leads one to the conclusion that our artists’ overseas counterparts and peers are much more pampered by attention from the mass media as well as exhibits. The groups “Kozyndan” (Kozue and Dan Kitchens, whose pictures are reminiscent of crazy cartoons), Ryan McGinness (abstract naive paintings and spontaneous photography), Shepard Fairy (who has an original style of propaganda posters), “FAILE” (Aiko Nakagawa, Patrick McNeil, and Patrick Miller, who produce an extremist version of pop art), former graffiti artist SWOON, who made her weird drawing right on the wall of the exhibit hall, and others have dozens of exhibits around the world. Meanwhile, our “actual artists” are on par with the Americans in everything except funding.
Our young talents can only pin their hopes on exhibits like this, because that seems to be the only opportunity to be noticed.
