2018
In Shalenny’s VR work the viewer goes beyond the horizon on a compressed forty thousand kilometers journey around the world. A game of chance, the journey is the outcome of a line drawn from a bridge and further across the world, taking place in the dead of night, where fuzzy silhouettes of people tear along through desolated landscapes, fleeing into gray blizzards and shadowy forests. Based on watercolors by the artist, one setting replaces the other as the ghost like figures cross birch forests, oil fields, abandoned churches and oceans in the seemingly limitless universe.
Shalenny has long been fascinated by the idea of the bridge in his works and in this particular work he takes a bridge as the starting point for imagining a way of escaping the ongoing crisis in the land where he resides. Or as he expresses it: “The idea of escaping is unconscious, it sprouts and becomes a young tree. Every morning I go to the yard with an axe and hack it at the root, banishing the wrong thoughts. The next morning it grows above me twice, its rustling leaves talking to the wind, which have already been everywhere.”
The Bridge, VR, duration: 9:51 min
“If So, What?”, San Francisco, USA, 2018.
Paul McCarthy and Nikita Shalenny showing the breadth of possibilities with this new medium within the arts.
Maps
Topographic map of the direction of the bridge.
“Suprematic village”, watercolor, paper, 75×105 cm.
Topographic map of the direction of the bridge. “Center
of the Russian Empire”, watercolor paper, 75×105 cm.
Topographic map of the direction of the bridge. “Taiga”,
watercolor, paper, 75×105 cm.
Plot
Siberia. Northern Lights, watercolor, paper, 30×40 cm.
Russia. Church, watercolor, paper, 30×40 cm.
Pacific Ocean. Military base, watercolor, paper, 30×40
cm.
Africa. Coast, watercolor, paper, 30×40 cm.
Jungle. Wild animals, watercolor, paper, 30×40 cm.
Jungle. Snakes, watercolor, paper, 30×40 cm.
Pacific Ocean. Military base after the Second World War,
watercolor, paper, 30×40 cm.
Russia. Plant, watercolor, paper, 30×40 cm.
Russia. Oil pumps, watercolor, paper, 30×40 cm.
Russia. The destroyed church, watercolor, paper, 30×40
cm.
The Atlantic ocean. Drake Passage, watercolor, paper,
30×40 cm.
The Atlantic ocean. Seals, watercolor, paper, 30×40 cm.
Mapping
“The Bridge”, Night of museums, Permanent revolution exhibition, Ludwig Museum. Curators Alisa Lozhkina, Konstantin Akinsha.
Exposition
Code Art Fair, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2018.
Exposition
Beijing Design Week, Beijing, China, 2018.
Photo: Ollie Gabyel.
Storyboard
Running people.
Picture #2, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #3, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #5, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm
Picture #6, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #14, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Storyboard
Swimming people.
Picture #1, #2, #3, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #4, #5, #6, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #7, #8, #9, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #13, #14, #15, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #16, #17, #18, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #19, #20, #21, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #22, #23, #24, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Storyboard
Falling down people.
Picture #1, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #2, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #3, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #4, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #5, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Picture #6, watercolor, paper, 21х30 cm.
Sketches
Running people, composition #1, watercolor, paper, 30х40
cm.
Running people, composition #2, watercolor, paper, 30х40 cm.
Running people, composition #3, watercolor, paper, 30х40
cm.
Running people, composition #4, watercolor, paper, 30х40 cm.
Swimming people, composition #1, watercolor, paper,
30х40 cm.
Swimming people, composition #2, watercolor, paper,
30х40 cm.
Swimming people, composition #3, watercolor, paper,
30х40 cm.