Olga Chernysheva: Compossibilities

Olga Chernysheva
Compossibilities

Text(s) by Boris Groys, Silke Opitz, graphic design by Eggers + Diaper, ed. V-A-C Foundation Moscow, Silke Opitz, Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, contributions by Silke Opitz

German, English

2013. 216 pp., 166 ills.

half cloth

Olga Chernysheva (*1962 in Moscow) does not deal with concepts of “society” and “system” as abstract constructions. Instead, she starts with the individual in order to demonstrate how the smallest entity sustains and determines the sociopolitical structure—and is likewise sustained and determined by it. Foreign workers waiting, traveling salesmen, bustling market women, ladies wrapped in fur—the artist’s gift of observation, reinforced by empathy, is also reflected in the broad spectrum of her forms of expression: from film and photography to painting, watercolors, and drawing, each medium serves the nuanced depiction of her complex subjects while at the same time highlighting how worthy the “little people” are of being photographed against the backdrop of great upheavals. Unlike nineteenth-century Russian Realism or early Soviet films, Chernysheva does not make any kind of sociocritical accusations, and she is indifferent to media-specific experimentation.