siberian
time
Everybody
knows about Greenwich Mean Time. The Europeans created Middle European Time. I
was slightly envious about this because we sit in a specific place - the geographical
center of Asia, but to date, everyone else has made the rules about time. Siberia's
relationship to time is imposed from outside. However the work of vasilij slonov
has changed this.
At
the end of the last year, Slonov exhibited his time collection at Art Salon
Diana in Krasnoyarsk. There were only clocks in the collection, nothing but clocks.
You can imagine the first thought coming to a normal person's head would be "such
a pity, a good useful appliance was spoiled." It is true that the clocks acquired
unusual and even shocking (to some) forms.
Slonov V (2000). Top hot time; above, in the trap of time
At
the heart of the Time Collection show was clock mechanisms: time was woven into
changing contexts. Some of the objects vivified things that exist but only in
the imagination, that is, as linguistic entities. Hot time. Trapped time. Backwards
time.
Slonov V (2000) get off!
Whatever
one says about Slonov's art, it's hard to not smile when looking at the objects.
Indeed, Slonov's works are stopping pieces. People just stop in front of them
- to hem, laugh, abuse, or to ponder.
Time
is one of the most serious challenges in our life. Humans have conquered many
natural elements, and they, like obedient horses, work for the wealth of industrial
societies. We no longer spend time like our ancestors. Ponder this: time today
is still a large white spot on the map of human knowledge.
Our
consolation in the vastness of the universe is that we measure time as it goes
by. Clocks and watches are vivid witnesses that something happens even if nothing
happens at all.
Since
childhood, time has been a great puzzle for Vasilij Slonov. As a little boy he
was hypnotized by the second hand of his parent's clock. How tiny and weak it
was from it's appearance, and how stubbornly and pitilessly it pursued its eternal
work...
Slonov
has created these moments, that reflect Siberian time. Siberia is no longer terra
incognita on the time map of the planet.
Vladimir
Gavrikov
gavrikov@online.ru
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