Authors

Kvitko Anna A.
INTEPRETATION OF CHRISTIAN IMAGES IN CONTEMPORARY ART (WITH REFERENCE TO VICTOR SACHIVKO’S CREATIVE WORKS)

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №2 (38) June, 2012

The article is devoted to the interpretation of Christian imagery in contemporary art. The art of Krasnoyarsk artist Victor Sachivko is taken as an example.

The introduction provides a classification of established Christian images, suggesting their division into anthropomorphic, spatial and symbolic ones. Among them are: anthropomorphic images of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Satan, spatial images of Paradise, the Heavenly City and the Earthly City, symbolic images of the cup, the cross, the ship, etc.

Further on, the author addresses V. Sachivko’s works to identify the specifics of transformation of Christian images and themes in them. Analysis of the installations "Seto: The Return of Dreams" (2007) and "In a Dream" (2009) reveals mostly anthropomorphic and spatial Christian images and how these are transformed in his work. The most important transformations are contamination of the Christian and pagan imagery, ambivalence, and dehierarchisation. Examples of Christian and pagan imagery contamination are the mixing of the cult of land and the worshiping of the pagan god Pecku with the cult of Christ and the Virgin Mary in the "Seto: The Return of Dreams" and combination of a pagan funeral feast with the plot of The Last Supper in the "In a Dream." The author understands ambivalence as combination of conflicting, contradictory images and phenomena. Thus, the artist combines the apocalyptic motif with salvation, sinners with the righteous, pagan reverence for the earth as the first matter with the worship of Christ and the Virgin. Dehierarchisation means the removal of oppositions and conflicts between opposite concepts, which is clearly evident in V. Sachivko’s work, in which conflicting images are not in contradiction but coexist in an indissoluble unity.

In conclusion, the author draws attention to the quality of the temple consciousness in V. Sachivko’s works, which should be understood as construction of a model meeting between the heavenly and the earthly, the divine and the human, the spiritual and the physical.

Kvitko Anna A.
THE PAGAN AND THE CHRISTIAN IN CONTEMPORARY SIBERIAN ART (WITH REFERNCE TO THE CREATIVITY OF A. MASHANOV, S. ELOYAN, V. SACHIVKO)

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №4 (40) December, 2012

The article is devoted to the issue of coexistence of Christian and pagan elements in contemporary art. The premise of the study is interaction between rather than contrasting of pagan and Christian imagery

To achieve this goal the author has reviewed the artworks of A.N Mashanov, I.N. Eloyan, and V.V. Sachivko that are more representative from this standpoint.

Using such works as "Saviour of the Apple Feast Day" and "Get Me a Star" as an examples, the author identifies the specifics of visualizing the idea of life and death cycles, and the relation of this idea to the cyclical worldview characteristic of paganism. The author reveals the characteristics of the Christian worldview as well.

In analyzing S. Eloyan’s painting "Winter Feast of St Nicholas" the author interprets the combination of symbols of pagan and Christian cultures as elimination of contradictions between paganism and Christianity. In general, this artwork is interpreted as a representation of a model of the Universe in which the underworldly, the worldy and the heavenly are symbolically united, and the axis of spiritual ascent is visualized.

In conclusion, the author analyses V. Sachivko’s installation "Seto: The Return of the Dream", where the cult of the earth is joined with the cult of Christ and the Virgin. According to the author, the Siberian land in this artwork acquires the status of temple as a sacred space.

By way of summing up, the author concludes that pagan and Christian images are closely intertwined, which demonstrates the coexistence of cyclic (inherent in paganism) and linear (inherent in Christianity) philosophical models in the minds of contemporary artists.