METODI – CONTEMPORARY ART FROM ST. PETERSBURG
“Method is essential for discovering the reality of phenomena.”
(Descartes)
The Method exhibition features paintings and installations by four young artists from St. Petersburg, united by the theme of dialogue between art and science.
Andrei Khlobystin (b. 1961) has constructed an installation in the small gallery space focusing on the theme of room corners and the microbiological connection between art and life processes. The corners reference the artist’s personal memories of childhood play and punishment spaces and, on a broader scale, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the resulting fragmentation and emptiness. Khlobystin draws inspiration from microbiology, which he believes reflects mechanisms and processes inherent to life itself. According to him, art functions like a bacterium, infecting and spreading to bring about transformation.
Oleg Maslov (b. 1965) explores the Tseliushkin series, paintings depicting the events of the rescue mission for the Tseliushkin expedition. In 1934, pilots rushed to save a shipwrecked Arctic research vessel, making them the first heroes of socialist mythology. The heroism of pilots, cosmonauts, workers, and soldiers became a central motif of Soviet art ideology. In his stylized paintings, Maslov reproduces images carved into walrus tusks by Chukchi artist Vukvolin. Another series by Maslov portrays mechanical humanoid figures composed of molecules—technoculture’s robots, hybrids of biological and mechanical forms.
Mikhail Timofeev (b. 1968) focuses his artistic practice on the repetition of a single shape and image: the cross. Using a stamp, he reproduces this simple yet powerfully symbolic form in various formations and series.
Afrika (Sergei Bugaev, b. 1966) presents the installation “Random Pendulum and Reflective Puzzle Construction,” which explores the randomness inherent in natural and social processes. The pendulum serves as a metaphor for the unpredictable nature of all evolutions and revolutions, embodying the same potential for danger and damage as life itself. Surrounding the pendulum is a wall of reflective copper plates, which Afrika considers a hybrid of icons and solar panels. A series of painted copper plates incorporates puzzles stylized in the tradition of Russian folklore.
In the exhibition catalog, curators Olessia Tourkina and Viktor Mazin, both from St. Petersburg, analyze and classify the works of these four artists in relation to each other, to different scientific perspectives, and to the unique characteristics of St. Petersburg as a region and city.
The exhibition has been organized in collaboration with the Pori Art Museum, the Kerava Art Museum, and the Artists’ Association of Finland, with support from the Finnish Ministry of Education.
Publication:
ISBN 951-9355-37-5 Metodi/ Method: Nykytaidetta Pietarista/Contemporary Art from
St. Petersburg (Andrei Khlobystin, Oleg Maslov, Mikhail Timofeev)
Pori Art Museum 9.10.-21.11.1993
Editing and lay-out: Jari-Pekka Vanhala
Translations: Arja Pikkupeura, Vera Zakharova, Karen Kimball
Photographs: Artists
Painohäme Oy, Ylöjärvi 1993
Pori Art Museum Publications 20
Translated with ChatGPT