by Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt
On September 13th, a new pop-up show curated by Alexandra Orlova was held in Glasgow. The main concept of the exhibition was focused on Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music. Using the figures of Dionysus and Apollo, Nietzsche aimed to highlight the dual nature of everything in the world. However, there was an interesting twist in the terms of representation – the curator insisted that all works, regardless of their original medium, should be presented as digital prints. This way, she connected the duality of art with the duality of physical and virtual environments that coexist in contemporary art.
Artists, who attended the show, investigated how the concepts of good and evil are not just black and white, but have different shades. Through this lens, Dionysus represents chaos, emotion, instinct, and the ecstatic, while Apollo symbolizes order, reason, structure, and clarity. The artworks in the show did not force a binary choice between the two, but rather explored the tension, overlap, and conversation between these forces.
Yuliya Kharchenko’s works represented high-key coloring and explored the Apollonian idea of the show. Her imagery highlighted her interest in ancient iconography in general. In her work We Believe What We See Kharchenko decided to work with the idea of depersonalization, which was typical for Ancient Greeks. We do not see the face of her model, because it does not matter. Like her inspirers, the artist is interested in the idea of the human body being depicted in a perfected way, as if it were one of Apollo’s muses. The enigmatic atmosphere we feel while looking at this piece creates the idea that anybody could be that muse in terms of connecting with art.
Yuliya Kharchenko. We believe what we see
Ksenia Pozdeeva, Tamir Kurtati, and Nicolas Lado’s imagery made the accent on the Dionysian part. However, all of them focused on the poetic part – creating the feeling of suspense and tension in terms of unpacking the theme that the curator offered them. Mariia Denysenko’s abstract diptych became the focal point of the exhibit. Using red as the main color in her works, she attracted attention in terms of the visual unity of the show’s composition.
Anastasia Klimova’s Shades of Duality reflects on the coexistence of opposites within the human spirit. As a big fan of Giorgio de Chirico, Klimova aimed to demonstrate the same ability to unite Dionysian and Apollonian ideas as was in her “teacher’s” art. Furthermore, de Chirico was interested in Nietzsche’s work himself and found inspiration in it while working on his metaphysical art. Peculiar that even though Anastasia Klimova claims that de Chirico is the number one artist to refer to, she managed to create her personal style, which is quite unique. Her palette has low-key shades, which are juxtaposed with the cold white that she uses to depict the swan, which she links with Apollo, because this bird used to symbolize him as a representative of light, harmony, and inspiration. The face of the model in the picture is calm, as if she is hiding something essential from the viewer and wants them to find out at the most unexpected moment.
Anastasia Klimova. Shades of Duality.
Maria Verner’s The Bloom of Time is a poetic reference to metaphysical painting and to the art of symbolists. The artist also aims to reflect the duality of life in her piece. To do that, she chose an elderly woman as a model. But unlike many visual works on such a theme, Verner is not portraying several women of different ages. The artist understood that such a move was typical for many artists of the past. The model is holding flowers, which highlights that everything has its time of bloom, but fades later. It is a very smart compositional detail, because it is the only element of the work that has active colors, as the palette in this picture is reduced.
Maria Verner. The Bloom of Time.
This show started a series of pop-up events that celebrate the connection
between post-modernist philosophy ideas and contemporary art.
