Five ages
After nearly 40 years of living in the vast concrete jungle of Moscow, I moved to a cozy town in Catalonia in 2019, just six months before the pandemic. Suddenly, I found myself only two blocks away from farmland and countless trails through mountains and forests. I was struck by the richness and beauty of the sights, sounds, and scents of my surroundings. I suddenly felt like a child, eager to touch and explore everything in my path. I experimented extensively with natural handmade pigments, discovering that red Catalan soil was the perfect color for my canvases. I transformed flower petals, yeast, and spices into unique shades and textures. The isolation during COVID intensified my connection to nature and my sense of belonging to it.
I created a philosophical series that explored the similarities between plant and animal species. Deprived of the primary ability of animals—to move freely—I realized that we are not so different from plants in many ways. I reflected on how profound this metaphor of a plant is in highlighting certain aspects of a human world. Later, I was pleased to read in Henri Bergson's "Creative Evolution": “Attempts to define the two kingdoms strictly have always come to naught. There is not a single property of vegetable life that is not found, in some degree, in certain animals; not a single characteristic feature of the animal that has not been seen in certain species or at certain moments in the vegetable world.”
O. K.
The Paleolithic Age, or Seeding
Oil and handmade pigments on canvas
2021
w 90 h 90 cm
