Execution of silicone symbol

St. Petersburg artist Arthur Molev settles scores with Barbie

In St. Petersburg, in one of the galleries of the art center “Pushkinskaya 10” - Navicula Artis, an exhibition of Artur Molev, a St. Petersburg artist and now a resident of Amsterdam, “Burn, Barbie, Burn!” opened. The exhibition features a painting and sculptural installation consisting of images of the “great-granddaughters” of Larionov’s Venuses with an easily recognizable figure of an American doll on the walls and a dozen “flying” Barbies surrounding the audience like tropical insects. The exhibition is supplemented by a video recording of the auto-da-fé of a plastic “idol” on Palace Square - part of the artist’s new project, which envisages a thousand puppet “executions” in different cities of Europe. Actually, the glamorous princess, aka the “plastic whore,” is burning, only on the video projector screen.

Molev’s project seems to expose the insidious plan of Barbie, the long-legged invader, in the artist’s own words, “who has captivated the whole world and is interfering with the flight of children’s imagination.” However, the author’s mention of fanatical inquisitors rather indicates the limitations of barbiphobes who are ready to blame a plastic doll for zombifying unfortunate children. To the accompaniment of the "AuktYon" group, the American "witch", from whose face even on her deathbed the Hollywood smile does not leave, burns with a blue flame. Footage of the public execution of the “silicon symbol of American beauty,” defenseless and at the same time sinister in the cold evening light, is replaced by an almost abstract fiery drawing, making the transition from chronicle recording to video art.

The dolls “hovering” around the audience (by the way, this time Barbie is innocent of devilry - it is not supernatural abilities that save her from falling, but transparent fishing lines) are hung with multi-colored baubles, wires, shoes, butterflies, mirrors, and masks. Beheaded, quartered and reassembled by the artist, they turn into creepy multi-armed monsters with faces hidden behind colorful trinkets, mechanical centipedes with plastic tentacles, tiny Mattel Kali, spinning in a destructive dance. The Hollow Woman makes up for the lack of entrails with useless attributes. Insatiable, she tries on more and more new accessories until her body is overgrown with a flashy-bright shell. The author's love of flea markets naturally complements the silicone fashionista's love of jewelry. Declared as socially relevant and relevant, Molev’s project looks not only to the present, but also to the past. These Barbies are products of modern consumer society, hung with colorful, cheap quasi-princess trash. But at the same time it is a recognizable reference to surrealist opuses, the “theory and assembly of dismembered babies” by Bellmer, a German artist who became famous for his articulated dolls, in a treatment a la Miro, as well as a return to much more ancient pagan origins: idol dolls, fragile and cruel deities frozen in a ritual dance.

Idolatry is characteristic of modern society, as well as of ancient pagans, as well as the need to periodically lynch these same idols, either by sacrificing them to a more powerful deity, or by working through one’s own complexes, or out of boredom, or perhaps by seriously believing in something that in them lies the cause of all human problems and misfortunes from racial hatred to anorexia. The question of whether Barbie's guilt has been proven remains open. “The Hollow Woman” burns without trial, but her defeat simultaneously turns into victory: the elderly fashion model is still in the spotlight, just like 60 years ago.

Olga BULATOVA