Triptych hosts Temo Svireli’s one-man show. Its name, Cheap Farce, does not look quite appropriate, since it bears an unnecessary disdainful nuance.
Meanwhile, Temo Svireli’s painting bears no signs of disdain. He is wise, kind, charming, and a little sad. In fact, this is rather a show- booth — modest, touching, and simultaneously able to reflect life with all its nuances and symbols, as well as most profound philosophical truth. This is precisely the puppet show G. K. Chesterton referred to, able to present a convincing depiction of even the Final Judgment.
“Temo Svireli’s heroes are favorites of children’s dreams, city folklore, and marionette theater” (Ihor Dychenko) — countless tiny figures: adults and children, jokers and kings, along with angels and fairytale birds in the middle of a fidgety and simultaneously defenseless crowd (Forty-Four People, Raising Children, Living Matter, or The Show Booth). However, Svireli’s characters know no fear: they are able to carry out long travels in small groups or even on their own in search of the truth (Viaduct and Pilgrim). Their customary world is divided into square cells, which might be shelves where they take a rest after playing their roles, or symbolic depictions of houses, or, most plausibly, both. However, from time to time they appear literally in a vacuum, becoming witnesses of great wonders (Ephemera).
“Temo Svireli’s uniqueness is in his ability to show the world’s diversity, where game is concentrated in ritual, while anxious perception of the present peeps out of the naked spiritual sphere where jokers and angels naturally travel from past to future” (Ihor Dychenko).
