Lesia Khomenko

Perspektyvna i​s a spatial work consisting of paintings, stretchers, a mock-up model, projections and sounds.

Commissioned by PinchukArtCenter, the work explores an artist’s place vis-à-vis the private and the political, the center and the periphery.

Perspektyvna i​s the name of the street my workshop is located on. The building was erected in the 1970s specifically for the Union of Artists of Ukraine members, including sculptors, painters and graphic artists. Even now most of the artists working in it are isolated from actual cultural trends and espouse conservative views in art. Therefore, when staying at my workshop, I felt sheltered and distanced from political life.

In ​Perspektyvna,​I analyzed countless connections established between the place, my political subjectivity and art practice, as well as an artist and institutions.

An army unit is stationed right under the windows of my workshop. I see young soldiers every day; I hear them march and sing. Perspektyvna Street was recently renamed in honor of Ihor Branovytskyi, a hero of the counter-terrorist operation who defended the Donetsk airport, was captured, tortured and killed. Therefore, my workshop was not only my shelter but also an epicenter of political events, constantly reminding me of the context that formed my identity as an artist. The front of the building housing the workshops overlooks Branovytskyi Street, named after a hero of most recent Ukrainian history, whereas the building’s back overlooks the base with countless soldiers whose army experience is largely monotonous. I have transferred this correlation between the center and the periphery onto my art practice and programmatic work with paintings. At the same time, I’ve organized the exposition space in order to avoid the binary opposition between the primary and the secondary, creating countless tension points while leaving the center empty.

I depict the soldiers unknown to me on large canvases as I observe them from my window. Instead of creating a figurative painting, I focus on the surface on which tree branches and figures of soldiers form an inalienable unity. I commissioned exclusive stretchers from exotic sorts of wood for the paintings; the masters who created them gave each a name. For the artists, stretchers are secondary to paintings, whereas institutions invested in the creation of objects of contemporary art might see them as “an object from another era.” In my work for the PinchukArtCentre, a stretcher, endowed with a name and even a voice, has become a key feature with elements of subjectivity.

The sounds in my work were produced as the paintings were being carried out of the workshop, from my private space into the political zone. This transition is very important for me: in my opinion, it is what transforms creativity into art. The stairwell of the workshops building is paradoxically narrow, making work impossible for me as an artist who prefers large formats. 260 x 150 cm (100 x 60 in) is the largest canvas you can get down the stairs. I affixed recorders to a stretcher and recorded 8-channel soundtrack of a stretcher being brought down the stairs.

 

Link to the video documentation of the exhibition.