Hands, Feet, Head and Other Objects for Everyday Use
The Ruarts Foundation, together with the Nizhny Novgorod studio Tikhaya, present the first solo project by Vsevolod Abazov, co-founder and permanent member of the TOY team, which has existed since 2012. On show at the exhibition is an installation with the long title ‘Hands, Feet, Head and Other Objects for Everyday Use’ that nonetheless conveys the whole essence of the project, with twelve sculptures in which household items and ordinary materials are woven into bizarre anthropomorphic images.
"This project is a free reflection on what interests me in art," comments Vsevolod. "I consider any work of mine unfinished if there is no character in it. At first I depicted it in its entirety, but over time I realized that the fragmentary appearance of a body within the composition may be enough. Even a finger or a heel gives the work the necessary human scale. The sculptural group 'Hands, Feet, Head...' is a humorous fantasy, an attempt to revive inanimate things."
A study of the symbolic or functional qualities of objects, subtle ironic flirtations with names or descriptions, and a critical but non-judgemental view of the surrounding reality show that Vsevolod Abazov's individual practices are related to the group work of the TOY team. From there his project inherits the deliberately careless visuality that is unmistakably recognizable in the authors’ street works. The differences are found not so much in artistic techniques and ways of interacting with reality, but in the position regarding this reality as such. If TOY builds its methodology and aesthetics (team style) around a depiction of everyday life, that is, a reliable recording of life, then in Vsevolod's solo works factual accuracy gives way to fantasies and fictions.
The artist's interests often focus on modern urban folklore: songs, proverbs, jargon, slang. Logocentricity can also be found in works for the project 'Hands, Feet, Head...': the 'Podkraduli' ['They Crept Up'] stilts, the 'Kukushka' ['Cuckoo'] finger for twisting at the temple, the 'Fofanator' [‘Jerkoff’] tool for giving the flick, and others. A view from the perspective of folklore tradition allows us to associate the sculptures with magical helpers from folk tales. Adopting the approach of philologist Vladimir Propp to mapping fairy-tale plots, the artist accompanies each sculpture with a graphic annotation explaining the principle of its operation. Outlandish creatures combining the properties of objects and humans have a certain pseudo-useful or really useful function within the boundaries of this artistic reality: the 'Watchman' rake guards the space of the exhibition hall, and 'Atlas' mounted on a telescopic pole supports the ceiling. This entire “unclassified rabble”, in the words of the philosopher Giorgio Agamben, can neither be called alive nor dead — it is frozen in anticipation of a narrative within which it may perform a task corresponding to its construction.
