Elena Gubanova, Ivan Govorkov
Photography, 2016
Slideshow, 0’15”, color, no sound, loop
My Own Self. Self-Portrait in the Collection of the State Russian Museum
It’s an “honest”, jocosely-dramatic self-portrait. The message “Art as Life” is represented by a tragically deformed sculpture (self-portrait) that faithfully depicts the horror of existence. The artist himself, who is wolfing a rum baba (symbol of prosperity and dolce vita), metaphorically illustrates the message “Life as Art”.
This coupling of the drama of creative work (the disintegrating self-portrait) and the joy of life (the artist himself) forms the classic unity of opposites, + and –