About ProjectA famous film director, whose name I forgot, once drew a precise line between erotic art and pornography. A depiction of a physical intimacy of partners becomes erotic art, and not porno, when there is love in it. All the rest - the extent of nudity, the method of coition, the violation of a social tabu - they all have no meaning. I believe that this simple rule works not only in films, but in all other art as well. I would not dare to say that while working on 'Piquant Whisper' project, commissioned by a club with such an explicit name - 'Mister XXX', - I was strictly following this rule. It would be really strange to expect the characters of those frivolous, and especially group, scenes to be driven and inspired by love. I chose a different path. Everything depended on the artist: would love admix to the irony, to the game of intrigues of the first pornographic books of the 18th century? Not a romantic sort of love - there is no room for romance here. It is rather about accepting a human being with all its weakness, lust, temptation and - sometimes - fear. The fear of not having enough time to taste everything. Would the light of love be reflected in this baroque Kamasutra? Love for life in its most comical manifestations. At least I was really amused by rethinking the images that were supposed to shock contemporaries of these etchings, and to stimulate the most desperate ones. Perhaps, during the Gallant Century - so lustful, and - at the same time - fearfully looking at heaven, all these magnifiers, chaperones, sophisticated and awkward poses and other horsefeathers could really arouse somebody. Now they are nothing more than a mind game, stimulating rather curiosity than blood. But who knows... Aren't you ashamed of painting such things? - an experienced staff member of the club asked me. Three hundred-year-old sources were my excuse. The classics, in a manner of speaking. My creative quest for these nine paintings had to do with sensuality. The very sensuality that lives in young leaves in spring, in raindrops, in the sunshine... Unfortunately, they have so little in common with human inventions and fantasies, but a human mind needs them more than any afrodisiac. It all reminds of Archetype Painting - it has the same purpose - but a different character, as it is related to sexuality. The technique that I chose for this project has its peculiarities, a special interpretation of the sources - not too heavy - like oil painting, and not too reserved - like an engraving. I wanted to illuminate all the funny obscenity, enrich it with colour, humour, and, of course, with love. Love for life. |
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