SCULPTURES

My love of kitsch started at the age of 6 or 7 when for the first time I saw the Meissen and Sevre porcelain collection at the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad. I was fascinated by the endless pastoral scenes, hunters, lovers, soldiers... I still am. Children usually like kitsch, being comforted by its absurd sweetness and clear message. Now I look at the history of art and find high-brow kitsch everywhere. I'm interested in the connections between art and Art, “professional”art and folk art, art and kitsch, art and life, a joke and a deadly serious statement, truth and fantasy, dream and reality; I like to trace the borders between them and the transformations of one into another. 

I could probably do this exploration in the more forgiving medium of painting or even digital art, but a sculpture as a 3D man-made object gives me a sense of reality, which is gradually disappearing in our quickly virtualizing world. Besides, the simple fact that I can make a human figure out of pile clay still amazes me and makes me feel like The Creator. It's a good motive, isn't it?