Translated material
Cholesterol as a metaphor
"Fat Exhibition" at Ravenscourt Gallery
Since Homer’s Agamemnon burned “fat and thighs of calves” to Zeus on the altars, a lot of time has passed; fat has ceased to be solemnly called “fat” and has lost its relationship with such sublime substances as incense, oil, etc. Now they don’t share it with the gods, they eat it themselves, but at the same time they complain about the harm to health, and are also often remembered in a figurative sense, naturally, also in a negatively ironic way.Something very ironic and critical can already be heard in the title of the project of the Elikuk art group - “Fat Exhibition”.
In the halls of the Moscow gallery Ravenscourt, headed by Maxim Boxer, the art duo presents installations and objects that are outwardly very restrained, but at first glance it is clear that there is a catch. On frozen sea waves created from black polyethylene film (what? Fellini also often made the sea from cellophane), in various medical, chemical or similar jars there are herrings, mackerel and other samples of salted-smoked fish floating in a yellow liquid, most likely in vegetable oil. For a viewer who is even more or less aware, an ironic quote is immediately obvious, a parody of one of the most successful contemporary world artists, the British Demian Hirst. One can even discern almost an indictment of the once provocative and critical artist, who, together with his original criticism and the famous shark in formaldehyde, has now turned into an ordinary commercial “fat guy”.
Something less specifically targeted, but no less accusatory, can be seen in the installation “Fat Stones”. Real heavy stones, shining from the generous covering of margarine or something similar, lie on the floor on a large black square of the same polyethylene, bordered with lace. This is what, having turned black, the traditional towel with an embroidered border, on which bread and salt is usually offered, has been transformed. Instead, stones are fat. However, fat does not make the stones any more edible.
And finally, black velvet rectangles in gilded, “museum” frames are hung on the walls, and on them mustaches of different colors and shapes. Here everything is not so obvious. Of course, a mustache is also a symbol of some kind of success and superiority. In addition, “it ran down my mustache, but didn’t get into my mouth,” though it wasn’t fat. Not so long ago, some half a century ago, many “fat” masters of life, all sorts of bosses wore mustaches (moustaches, moustache). Although in our time the mustache is not such an obvious symbol, even somewhat anachronistic, bordering on kitsch. Doesn't suit everyone. To make it even more convincing, the artists came to the opening of the exhibition with their mustaches glued on.
The name of the Elikuk group is derived from the surnames of its members, Oleg Eliseev and Evgeniy Kukoverov. It echoes the story of Captain Cook, who was eaten by Pacific savages. One visitor to the exhibition even suggested that the whole thing was a kind of retelling of this story. First, sailing the seas - here are the waves and fish, then geographical discoveries - here are the rocky archipelagos, and here is the mustache - all that remains of Captain Cook.
This is precisely the story that the artists, of course, did not intend to tell. Maybe they weren’t even planning any plans at all. Elikuka are not the kind of artists who tell or illustrate stories. Coming from the world of teenage subculture, alternative music and performance, they have been presenting strange, provocative and interactive objects and installations at various viewing platforms for several years now. The most famous of them are the installation “Rowing” and picturesque skateboards made in an expanded composition under the art brand Nalivka-Zapekanka together with the poet and artist Maxim Roganov. In these works, as well as in the “Boring Exhibition” recently shown at the Reflex gallery, there is reflection and irony about modern mass culture surrounding life, about the viewer himself. But so far there have been no postmodern quotes or irony about fellow artists.
And in “The Fat Exhibition” a suspicion arises: something is appearing. The allusion to Hirst is simply obvious. But in everything else, one can easily discern all sorts of reflections and hints. It doesn’t even matter whether Elikuk remembered Joseph Beuys, who poured olive oil on stones in Italy, or whether they associated their black velvet rectangles with the Suprematist tradition. Their parody fish set the tone, and it seems that their entire exhibition is about the artistic situation and the history of modern art with all its non-objective abstraction, ready-mades, installations, etc. and at the same time, eternal dependence on the “yellow devil”, no less yellow than unrefined sunflower oil. They don’t tell it, they don’t retell it, and they certainly don’t put forward their own alternative history of art. They reproduce this whole story, reducing it to a set of some elementary components. But not in order to oppose this historical tradition, as artists who are still at the initial stage of their creative path most often do. No, Elikuka, in his current personal project, simply and bravely swallows the entire history of art, and at the same time the current situation, swallows it easily and gracefully, without choking, and pours fat on top so that it is better absorbed. Young artistic organisms are not afraid of excess cholesterol. Especially if it's cholesterol as a metaphor. Even if as a metaphor. And if anything, they themselves have a mustache!