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A Critical Analysis about St. Petersburg Russia
artists Sergey Volkov's and Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky's Artistic
Expression, now offfered as Fine Art Prints for Home Decor
Sergey Volkov Last Self Portrait 1994
The world of eternally true things
is small but universal. It does not matter how different or unique
the expression of ththese principals are, their fundamental essence
are incontestable for everyone. It is true that as any one who is
within the gravitation field of the Earth feels the power of its
pull, every one who ponders over the question " where am I
from?" accepts the justifiable answer
"I am a product of my childhood."
This aphoristic affirmation is the first
heart felt response of many a person who has looked through this
unusual album at least once.
The experiences of our childhood
never disappears, they only hide away in a secluded place of our
"ego", ceding to the experiences youth , maturity
and old age. This childhood record of our formative experiences
reminds us of ourselves at the most uncertain of times. As soon
as one feels the taste of fish oil in the mouth or all of the sudden
smell a well known fragrance of granny's perfume miraculously preserved
in a scent coming from an empty empty bottle. Just as miraculously
childhood memories will emerge from their hidden shelter stopping
us from our headlong race through life, freezing and immersing us
into a magic moment, which when found we desperately try to prolong
them...Lucky people are those who are able to nurture and strengthen
the thinnest threads connecting us with our childhood. These people
are those who have the ability to strike the miracle bell to that
sounds a fragile remembrance which rescues us from our mysterious
stupor. The musician Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky and artist Sergey Volkov
are the two such bell ringers.
" First Step" By Sergey Volkov
Musician and Artist magically open for
us a window upon this forgotten but cherished world, otherwise only
accessible only for initiated or those who have inner vision which
is able to hear and see the innermost music in the heart. On the
flatness of a sheet of paper Sergey creates a miraculous screen
which becomes a border between reality and memory. We being mortal
watch the movies of our childhood singly, not being able to commemorate
them into images by sounds or paints, but these two musician and
artist are able to share those images with us. In this case the
artistic power is defined and measured by the power of resonance
in our hearts, the power of universality, and recognizing oneself
in another person's expression of their own experience.
Sergey and Vyacheslav have created
a direct window to our own memories offering us a magic carpet ride
through our own childhood memories. They imbued the simple objects
of home decor with the tension that can only be added through the
minds eye of a childs emotional growth within in their own einvironment.
These are feeling we all have had but would not be able to give
expression ot without the creative genius of Sergei Volkov to put
into visual elements and Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky's ability to stimulate
similar familiar feelings through the auditory senses.
The intention to express the
immense layer of psycho-emotional nature of an individual as fully
as possible led to the necessity to use polyphony of a cycled type.
They build up the cycle like a movie edited from different episodes
but united by the same subject, through action of the same
character.
The central character is a
child, kid, baby...someone who is the expression of all of us. Who
is it - a boy or a girl? Is this the author, as he sees himself
in his childhood, or finely noticed world of his daughter? Or son?
The secret is that the main character is the mystic personification
merging of both child seen with the author's own "inner" child,
extracted from the secrecy of subconscious and awakened by his own
fatherhood. This merging is absolute, because the childhood never
would have been revived except by his own children granted by destiny
and fate. Would it have been possible: this deep and immense passage
into one's own heart, into those remote times and places, when "
trees were high"... had not had his own children to nurture??
In the creative cooperation of Artist and
Musician each played his own essential role. The worlds of
the visible image and audible sounds exist side by side, enriching
and harmonizing with each other but each media using its own
characteristic language.
It is important for an Artist to show not
the course of events, but to immerse the mind into that fairylike
world of charming discoverers. Each of us passed through our own
childhood country, which we left long ago. In the compositions our
artists express that special condition of discovering the world
by renewing the undimmed memory in our child's heart, allowing us
to redicovery and remember the charm of those experiences. That
magic moment and place where the whole universe can be found in
one yard, when a kid meets a butterfly, a star, flower or
snowflake. This seems mysterious, mystical and full of special meaning.
These moments are DIFFERENT, a space where the laws and logic
which are common for us as adults, are not at work yet.
This is the magic of childhood when the
s pontaneity of discovery and the apprehensions of a child's soul
which will later disappear is the leit-motif of the series
of Sergey Volkov. He has designed this world carefully, calling
to us as an unpredicted guest, trying not to frighten but
to reanimate an apparition and memory, which can disappear as a
result of the slightest rustle.
Most clearly the meaning
of this is seen in the images of "Dream" and " Cartoons". The character
is existing in the associative space full of metaphorical objects
of his childhood's fantasy which are arising somewhere in the depth
of his unconscious and drawing his mind into vortex streams
of associated memories. This method of showing the inside through
the outside is exactly the core connecting the graphic sheets of
the album. When there are not fantasies but the reality of the world
of common things used in home decor in the foreground, the principle
of "inside through the outside" remains. "Grandfather came!"
- the scene seems to be seen in two dimensions at once from outside
and from inside ( with the eyes of the kid on the swings.); one
frozen moment shows a slightly deformed and foreshortened
world full of the joyful feeling of a holiday, when all life
can be put on hold until the evening...
The method of slight deformation
of daily objects used as home decor helps to inspire them with a
breath of special life characteristic to a children's imagination.
In this way the grand piano becomes alive in " First opus". It takes
on the characteristics like a kind of warm blooded animal such as
a hippopotamus, creating the expression that the piano itself is
a full-blooded co-author of the young pianist! As the piano
produces sounds and those sounds mix with the sun light and fill
the space of the room with a cloud like a spiritual veil.
If the objects used for home
decor can be inspired what can be said about animals inhabiting
the world of childhood? Kitten is the closest and most approachable
for the contact with a little person. Its image gets into the "frame"
of a sheet more often than any other: it is almost a tiger
in ("Kitten Poosh"), or mystic and magic gaurdian of the night in
("Lullaby"), a friend who understands everything ("Cartoons") or
a fairytale character "cat-scholar" ("Grandfather came!"). There
are exotic animals from circus in childhood leading their own fantasy
lives-" Waltz" represents an episode in the enchanting spectacle
from the performances in the life of an elephant-artist.
The c enter of gravity of a child's soul,
the hub of his world and the personification of his life, at last,
is the child's mother. What warmth and peacefulness radiates from
the image sheet called "Mother"! Softness in the silhouette of her
figure, in the folds of her dress...comfort and calmness are felt
in her whole appearance. In truth in childhood " my mother is the
most beautiful"... this is how a child could see his mother through
their half closed eyelashes a moment before sinking into a sweet
and careless sleep, which is possible only in childhood.
Looking through
the album again it comes to the mind that in general we are dealing
with the REFLECTION of the appreciation of the child's soul where
the artist has a pass owning to his person talent for memory
and expression. Sergey suggests where to look for the key to the
understanding of the depicting: "Father" - a self-portrait
of the artist- on the surface of the vase is a reflection of the
window upon the world of childhood which he has opened for us.
Sergey as an
artist has a complete command of an intelligible and self-determined
way of expressing deep emotional meaning through the visual.
Vyacheslav as composer, ruling in the world of sounds, appeals
to our finer spheres of comprehension. For those who are able penetrate
into his musical resonance's will enjoy reflecting on the times
of childhood, and to feel the finest of esthetic pleasures. Each
score is like a complete and perfect jewel in the necklace of the
musical cycle. The composer has chosen enriched colors on a broad
palette and builds up rhythm of lines, using all available ways
of organizing of sound fields creating unique musical images
characteristic to the preset topic.
"Children's Album" created, born,
and nurtured by Gaivoronsky-Volkov shows to us the talents
and skillfulness of its creators by becoming the wonderful union
of two eternal arts.
GALINA CARGANOVA,
art-critic and writer, St. Petersburg, Russia
These images are now offered as Fine Art Giclee Prints using the
Giclee Printing process of our Epson 9600 printer. These images
are Idealy suited for home decor.
See our publishing policy.
Go to Thumbnail Gallery
and Commentary on of Children's Album
Go to Thumbnail Gallery
of varied works by Sergey Volkov
All Copyrights to Images on the Sergey Volkov
website are sole property of Galina Volkova and the Heirs of Sergey
Volkov © 2002
If you are an Artist interested in Giclee Printing
please feel free to give us a call or send and e-mail.
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