FLAKES

2017, 150 x 100 cm, graphite on paper, video

2017 — THE URAL INDUSTRIAL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART, EKATERINBURG, RUSSIA

In the realm of artistic interpretation, one can perceive oneself as the quarry — an unyielding entity subjected to the relentless grind of millstones. These millstones, unapologetic in their execution, pulverize the raw material within, transmuting latent relics into genuine memories through the processes of averaging and purification. Memories, once crumpled into the realm of dreams, blend with reality and intertwine with the inconceivable.

Graphite, hailing as one of the most formidable substances the earth bestows, undergoes disassembly into delicate flakes and metamorphoses into the fragile core of a pencil. Even the imperceptible fissure concealed beneath its wooden casing carries the potential for devastation, imperiling the essence of drawing existence.

Within the dismantling of graphite’s crystalline structure resides the enigma of transformation — its most intricate and methodical incarnation being the diamond, while its most cutting-edge manifestation, arising from the plane, assumes the form of graphene. Graphene, a rejuvenated existence within contemporary technologies, secures its pervasive dissemination in an era when the analog pencil’s reign is challenged.

The Urals stand as the repository of Russia’s paramount graphite deposit, representing one of the most widespread sources on the global scale. Notably, the iconic pencil brand KOH-I-NOOR fashions its pencils from Ural graphite, Ural kaolin, and Siberian cedar.

Evidences of graphite’s tangible production materialize within graphic compositions and video narratives, wherein the relentless hum of ceaseless processing machines emerges as an intra-uterine pulse. Graphite, in its elemental form, adorns the drawings and infiltrates the videos, casting glistening particles into the ethereal ether, resting upon weightless canvases.

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tanya akhmetgalieva
tanya akhmetgalieva