The White Room

To my Russian Roots

I left my native city of Moscow in 2011, carrying with me the historical and cultural memories  that inevitably shape the Russian psyche, forming the basis of a certain emptiness and hopelessness common to us all; my subject matter concerns what I have left behind.

As I child I was drawn to the empty space within a pictures. Years later, I realised that the ‘empty space’ is not empty but ‘open’. It is a void through which I pour my thoughts, memories, imagination, and my personality. Following the tradition of Russian Art, my project is an argument with Moscow Conceptualism;  in my work I open the ‘black square’ and use the unpredictability of the colour white as a‘window’, reaching towards a sense of Russian Cosmism.

The White Room is an imaginative place which I come back to in my thoughts. I know that new people will live here and whitewash the walls. The paintings represent open windows;  through soft and light layers viewers may immerse themselves in fragments of my memories. The ‘musique concrète’ sound collage that accompanies the works lets the listener/viewer experience my forgotten city. The antique Viennese Chair represents a passing epoch and missing people.

All and Around, 2018
Dedicated to Alexander Wustin, Russian composer (1943 - 2020)
Music composition, 22 min / Musique concrete