“Shakespeare. Shake the Spirit” is a special project, presented at the 6th International Book Arsenal Festival. The name signifies the authors’ ultimate goal – namely, to shake the obsolete rubber stamps, which perpetuate in the artwork accompanying Shakespeare’s works. The project is supported by British Council Ukraine as part of the program “Creative Enterprise: Ukraine.”
In total, illustrators from Pictoric prepared an impressive array of projects for the Book Arsenal: an exhibition in cooperation with French authors, the “living library,” and the project “Semenko 100,” which is comprised of a hundred art-books dedicated to poems by the Ukrainian poet-futurist. There is much to talk about and to look at, but we are particularly interested in the idea around William Shakespeare’s plays. And specifically in how contemporary artists actualize canonical works.
THE CLASSICS HELP DISCOVER SOMETHING NEW
Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear, Timon of Athens, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Coriolanus, Love’s Labour’s Lost and other classic plays became the basis for the posters by 16 illustrators. “We have only provided the artists with the list of plays, and they chose the topic they want to draw about,” says Anastasia Denysenko, co-curator of Pictoric club of illustrators. “At first we thought about developing ideas for book covers – it just goes well with the nature of Book Arsenal. But we did not enforce any format restriction on the illustrators and eventually we saw that most of them came up with more poster-like works.”
It is not the first time Pictoric rethinks an established stereotype. Thus, the project “People of Ukraine” – a large series of unusual portraits of prominent Ukrainians – has a long-term army of fans. And recently the illustrators, in cooperation with art critic Borys Filonenko, made the book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Graphic Stories, which features anecdotes and legends about the famous movie, recreated in the form of comics and posters.
“Such art makes famous personalities and works closer to the modern audience,” says Denysenko. “For example, some of Shakespeare’s plays might have been unknown to a person, but the poster can raise their interest in reading. Simply a title may attract the attention. And the artists also like this form of art, because classical works always contain different layers of meaning, which cannot be interpreted always in the same way. In addition, classics can always improve one’s skills in other genres; it can offer something new for illustration.”
WHAT ARE PEOPLE-CATHEDRALS?
Oleh Hryshchenko, Pictoric club co-curator, has created posters for Hamlet and Macbeth. In fact, his favorite Shakespeare’s play is Midsummer Night’s Dream. “But I didn’t make anything about it, because I couldn’t find the idea to precisely convey all my impressions of the play,” says Oleh. The illustrator said that he did not rely on the plot to provoke ideas – on the contrary, he had some creative ideas which he tuned for the classics.
Both posters are created in deep, distressing colors: ultramarine, blue, dark red, black. “I paint in the Expressionist style, and it seemed to me that these stories are suitable for it,” says Hryshchenko. “The poster for Hamlet has Gothic-like arches, but the characters of the play, hanging over everything else, also resemble architectural elements. And there is a tiny passageway, which is extremely difficult to go through and survive. I wanted to show how little a person can be before the face of various ups and downs of life, and how the burden of power and intrigue hangs over them. And the Gothic cathedrals are relevant because they were built to have a person feel their own insignificance before God.”
In Macbeth the theme is similar: people and power. A sword struck into the sky gets stuck in the clouds – and this is reminiscent of how exaggerated human ambitions are. Maybe, some Ukrainian politicians would benefit from some time spent meditating before this picture.
A MODERN FORM OF THE ETERNAL PASSION
“Time does not stand still, and it makes little sense to depict Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth in the style of 17th-century engravings every time,” says Hryshchenko. “This has its own charm: the plays were written centuries ago, had many posters drawn for them, but there are new trends, and you can make your own and still be accurate. For centuries, the clothes and behavior of humans have been changing, but the physiology actually remains the same. And these changes bring new forms of the talk about the eternal passions: love, jealousy, revenge.”
Illustrators are going to showcase their Shakespearean adventure in Lviv and perhaps in other cities of Ukraine. Also, a series of postcards was created in the framework of this project. “We like to update cultural topics. Moreover, we like working not only in the Ukrainian context, but also in the international one,” says Hryshchenko. “The difference between Ukrainian authors and the same Shakespeare is only in the location. All the plots are dedicated to people’s relationship, and British have the same problems as Ukrainians do.”
Incidentally, Pictoric illustrators want to complete the “People of Ukraine” project before the Independence Day. The artists plan to create several dozens of new images.
The classics, be they Ukrainian, English, or from anywhere else, are actually indifferent to how we honor them. Remembering eternal plots and stories is in our best interest to avoid mistakes and find answers for the future, “as you like it.” By the way, Shakespeare has a play of the same name.
