In the Middle of Things – Olga Chernysheva
23 January–27 March 2011
BAK, basis voor actuele kunst presents In the Middle of Things, a solo exhibition by Moscow-based artist Olga Chernysheva. Chernysheva’s practice is highly diverse and includes paintings, watercolors, sculptures, photography, and videos. Working on the background of the changes that Russia has undergone in the past twenty years, she has followed a unique path among a handful of Russian artists who have resisted the dominant market trends of commodity production and spectacle, and embarked on a re-evaluation of art’s methods as well as of its position in relation to society. The exhibition at BAK presents a view into Chernysheva’s extensive practice by bringing together works produced for this occasion, as well as new additions to existing series, and a selection of key pieces from the past decade.
In the Middle of Things follows closely the artist’s method of tracing moments of encounter between the unexceptional and the historically revealing, which take place in the most hidden corners of day-to-day life. In her works, forms, colors, and objects reminiscent of the Soviet times, or new communities and alienated individuals appear, but these are not innocent images randomly extracted from reality. Instead these fragments of daily life are high-lighted, materialized, and taken out of their surroundings in order to show how society is and how it might be different. The artist’s deployment of realism—recomposing aspects of contemporary reality into a social panorama—is implicitly critical and suggests how art can speak about the world today.
FORMER WEST
In the Middle of Things is a research exhibition organized within the framework of FORMER WEST, a long-term, multifaceted international research, education, publishing, and exhibition project (2008–2013).
For more information, please visit: www.bak-utrecht.nl
