PAT-POST-ACADEMIC TRAUMA
work in progress since 2016
curator Kate Drakunova
The project is dedicated to my understanding of academic art education in Russia
and the role of art institutions in the personal path of an artist.
PAT is a visual representation of a sabotage performance that took place in the St. Petersburg Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. During 4 months
I had been posing naked for the students of the Academy. My body was covered with written words – contemporary art terms that are never heard of inside the Academy of Arts. As a result of every posing session, a photographic documentation and an article explaining the term and its meaning for the creative practice of the authors were published on the social media webpage vk.com/postacadem. Katya studied in Smolny university,
she is a Contemporary Art curator. There are approximately 100 words that divide these two schools claiming the title of the foundation for the Art in the cultural context of St. Petersburg. PAT – post-academic trauma is a disease that the artists diagnosed themselves with having reflected their existence after the Schools.
Students perceive them as objects for painting, an exposed “something” following in the level of difficulty, and consequently, in meaning still lives and drapery. Following the logic of the Russian Academy students, becoming a model is the biggest fall for an artist. I took this position in order to create the situation of a new sincerity and an alternative (self)education starting with raising questions. The presentation of terms takes place within the limits permitted to the silent Object of Sight: they are written over a naked body. However, despite the shocking visibility of the words written over the female body, none of them appeared in the final artistic works. Breasts, buttocks and pubis look more respectable on the canvas than the words “discourse”, “rhizome”and “transgression”, while the beauty of the model is more appropriate than her personal position.
We put a PAT in the confrontation of schools (a position on a chess board when a player cannot make a move without violating the rules of chess). We have nowhere to “move”, we are not attacking, we are trying to see the situation beyond the game-confrontation.
work in progress since 2016
curator Kate Drakunova
The project is dedicated to my understanding of academic art education in Russia
and the role of art institutions in the personal path of an artist.
PAT is a visual representation of a sabotage performance that took place in the St. Petersburg Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. During 4 months
I had been posing naked for the students of the Academy. My body was covered with written words – contemporary art terms that are never heard of inside the Academy of Arts. As a result of every posing session, a photographic documentation and an article explaining the term and its meaning for the creative practice of the authors were published on the social media webpage vk.com/postacadem. Katya studied in Smolny university,
she is a Contemporary Art curator. There are approximately 100 words that divide these two schools claiming the title of the foundation for the Art in the cultural context of St. Petersburg. PAT – post-academic trauma is a disease that the artists diagnosed themselves with having reflected their existence after the Schools.
Students perceive them as objects for painting, an exposed “something” following in the level of difficulty, and consequently, in meaning still lives and drapery. Following the logic of the Russian Academy students, becoming a model is the biggest fall for an artist. I took this position in order to create the situation of a new sincerity and an alternative (self)education starting with raising questions. The presentation of terms takes place within the limits permitted to the silent Object of Sight: they are written over a naked body. However, despite the shocking visibility of the words written over the female body, none of them appeared in the final artistic works. Breasts, buttocks and pubis look more respectable on the canvas than the words “discourse”, “rhizome”and “transgression”, while the beauty of the model is more appropriate than her personal position.
We put a PAT in the confrontation of schools (a position on a chess board when a player cannot make a move without violating the rules of chess). We have nowhere to “move”, we are not attacking, we are trying to see the situation beyond the game-confrontation.
documentation in the soshial network, ’female artist’, a description of the concept of feminism, 2017
School
exhibition
Nizhny Novgorod State Exhibition Complex, 2020
continuation of the PAT’s artistic intervention in the traditional environment
This exhibition is a self-ironic attempt to make visible the context of contemporary art in Russia and to reflect on the relevance of the pathos of the Russian realist school in the history of art development.
An exhibition of two Academy of Arts graduates, Anna Belousova and Maria Egorova, in their home country, at the Nizhny Novgorod Exhibition Center, a traditional venue for the Union of Artists of Russia, heirs to the Soviet realist school.
Maria’s Halls presents quite conventional paintings, with some romantic pathos, which the author lowers with ironic captions under the works, parodying the school essays on the
reproductions in the «Native Language» textbook. Anna’s Halls exhibits her work from the PAT series and documentation of performance art in the form of an installation. At the opening of the exhibition, Anna methodically painted over her schoolwork with white gesso, either to show off the texture of the painting or simply to make room for new work.
exhibition
Nizhny Novgorod State Exhibition Complex, 2020
continuation of the PAT’s artistic intervention in the traditional environment
This exhibition is a self-ironic attempt to make visible the context of contemporary art in Russia and to reflect on the relevance of the pathos of the Russian realist school in the history of art development.
An exhibition of two Academy of Arts graduates, Anna Belousova and Maria Egorova, in their home country, at the Nizhny Novgorod Exhibition Center, a traditional venue for the Union of Artists of Russia, heirs to the Soviet realist school.
Maria’s Halls presents quite conventional paintings, with some romantic pathos, which the author lowers with ironic captions under the works, parodying the school essays on the
reproductions in the «Native Language» textbook. Anna’s Halls exhibits her work from the PAT series and documentation of performance art in the form of an installation. At the opening of the exhibition, Anna methodically painted over her schoolwork with white gesso, either to show off the texture of the painting or simply to make room for new work.
Drawings from the PAT series
6 drawings 100х100сm
2017-2019
In the course of my performance art at the Academy, I often heard from older colleagues a diagnosis of ‘‘artistic impotence’’. This series is my reflection on academic skills. By posing, I served as an object for the students’ gaze, and my body as an instrument of my message. In my own drawings, it was important for me to re-present my body already with my gaze. I placed myself in the poses of the models of Alexander Ivanov, a painter
whose art is a textbook example of Russian classicism, whose studies of the nude female model served as a model for many generations of art students to copy. In my work I also borrowed Ivanov’s characteristic circular stroke manner, which has become a kind of sign of good taste in drawing and high skills.
6 drawings 100х100сm
2017-2019
In the course of my performance art at the Academy, I often heard from older colleagues a diagnosis of ‘‘artistic impotence’’. This series is my reflection on academic skills. By posing, I served as an object for the students’ gaze, and my body as an instrument of my message. In my own drawings, it was important for me to re-present my body already with my gaze. I placed myself in the poses of the models of Alexander Ivanov, a painter
whose art is a textbook example of Russian classicism, whose studies of the nude female model served as a model for many generations of art students to copy. In my work I also borrowed Ivanov’s characteristic circular stroke manner, which has become a kind of sign of good taste in drawing and high skills.
