The sheet of foil on the wall symbolizes water (the world ocean separating the lower and the middle worlds). The fish and the masks are both archetypes.
R.L. is methodically demolishing this assemblage, taking away one piece at a time.
E.Z. documents the process with her camera, finally suggesting: arrange the series of images in reverse order, starting with the bare wall and proceeding toward the reconstituted assemblage – an act of creation, not of destruction.
…is one of the most important archetypes. In her earliest incarnation she appears as the so-called Paleolithic Venus: a massive breast, heavy hips, a large belly — all markings of fertility.
In the Neolithic era the image undergoes a radical transformation: the goddess appears as a «maiden» — with a slender waist, a small breast: the archaic imagination has taken a leap forward, evolving the conception of virginity as latent fertility, not yet exhausted.
Another important archetype is the centaur, which eventually comes to stand in for man: the fusion of reason and instinct. The archaic centaur — or anthropocentaur — appears as a man fused with a horse’s backside; the hippocentaur, i.e. a horse with a human torso in place of its head and neck is a later invention.
R.L. has spent years trying to sculpt the Goddess and the Centaur.
E.Z. photographs these efforts and insists on the shift away from anatomical naturalism toward greater abstraction.
This is finally accomplished in the joining of the two archetypes: the Great Goddess-Centauress.
.jpg)
-1.jpg)
3.jpg)
Elvina Zeltsman.
Born in Kiev, lives in the US since 1991. Photographer, translator, co-editor of the samizdat-magazine REFLECT…ÊÓÀÄÓÑÅØÙÒ. Works published in CHERNOVIK.
Personal exhibitions: “ETC” (photography and collage) with R. Levchin at Studio 207, Dec ’06 – Jan ‘07.
Online publications: www.hiero.ru/Lilja, http://photosiht.ru, http://Lilja.pixa.ru.
Artist’s website: http://www.elvinazeltsman.com/
Rafael Levchin.
Born on the Crimean Peninsula in 1946, studied in Moscow Literary Institute, since 1970 lived in Kiev, since 1991 lives in Chicago. He has been in the underground art movement: postfuturists (renamed metarealists, 1976-1983); Chen-Dzu (1983-1987); 39, 2 ° C (1984-1988), Glossollalia (1985-1991), Theater Club (from 1985, then Neomythological Theatre, now International Theater Ensemble), Cassandrion (from 2000).
Writes poetry, plays, essays; translates. Published in anthologies, magazines, almanacs, as well as in the Internet:
Books of poetry: VODAogon' (St. Petersburg, 1996), LUDUS DANIELIS (Moscow, 2003), Izbrannoe (Kiev, 2006), [the pilots] (Franc-Tireur USA, 2010).
Ceramist, graphic, visual poet. Works in private collections in Moscow, Kiev, Chicago, Miami, etc.
Publisher, editor-in-chief and art director of the samizdat-magazine REFLECT…ÊÓÀÄÓÑÅØÙÒ.
Participated in various international projects and conferences: WHITE CROW (Kiev, 1989), AGASFER (Moscow 1991), WORD THEATRE (Koenigsberg, 1995), EYERHYMES (Edmonton, 1997), GEzEllE (Bruges, 1999) AROUND THE COYOTE (Chicago, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006), AATSEEL (San-Francisco, 2008; Philadelphia, 2009; Pasadena, 2011).