By the River

The project By the River is inspired by three paintings of Hnat Tarasiuk (1950-60-th ). These are three paintings-repetitions representing the same plot and depicting the same action. However, they cannot be regarded as copies at any matter, they are more likely to resemble sequence of day alternations. The following characters are involved: the River, the Boat, the Woman in Red, the Man in Black, Trees, Flowers, Swans and other things you may think of when contemplating these landscapes.

By the River is a name of co-related series I've been working on for the last year and a half. Through my works created specially for this project I attempt to give a wider outlook at the world sincerely collected in quintessence by naïve painting. Plots and images are casually distributed in layers, stories about the trees on the other side of the River are told, as well as the stories about the things that she (River) hides on the bottom and about the boat voyage along her banks. Finally, the River becomes the protagonist, absorbing all the inherent symbolism. At times, she even erases the memory of the original source of inspiration and becomes an irresistible dominant.

Majority of the works were created at the art residence Velykyy Pereviz, which served as a foundation base for a specific kind of art research and reconstruction of landscapes from my grandad's paintings. The landscapes that may be repeated from day to day, both in plots and metaphorically. The background taken from the naïve paintings – a real river, trees, branches as stencils for the image - becomes of the foremost importance.

It's quite difficult to squeeze the entire story of the project into one space. Only a book may serve as such space, it adds up another dimension – time. The pages of the book share with us the stories about the River, the Boat, the Woman in Red, the Man in Black, Trees, Flowers, Swans and other things you may think of when contemplating these landscapes.This book may be called By the River (abridged), as even the most exacting spectator will not be interested in turning over hundreds of pages with semi-abstract landscapes, project sketches and pictures of wild nature.

The project consists of two exhibitions at the Art Center Ya Gallery (curator Pavlo Gudimov) where presented series The Trees on the other side of The River and the exhibition Pure Art at the Art Arsenal Museum (curated by Lydia Lykhach and Petro Honchar) where presented original works by Hnat Tarasyuk, and series of Things of River, video work and artists book Woman into boat and Man (interactive a comic book to participate in its creatures were invited Ukrainian artists, writers and musicians).