Illumination: Between Bear, Hats, Fruits, Octopus and Hedgehogs


Acrylic. 800x300 cm

Taking the logo of the Belarusian soviet satirical magazine “Вожык” (Hedgehog) as a basis, I "roll" it by sticking different narratives and stories on its needles. In the new version of the work "Illumination: Between Bear, Hats, Fruits, Octopus and Hedgehogs" I contrast old cartoons from the 19th-20th century representing the unchanging "alphabet" of the political imagination showing how some images (countries) may not change for centuries but at the same time how the hedgehog becomes an anti-tank hedgehog that keeps rolling on the ground.
I used the basic colours of the Reims Gospel miniatures - brown, green, blue - and "enlarge" these colours from miniatures to monumental painting, like magazine cartoons to mural. Essentially combining two histories and meanings of the word illumino - which meant completely different things at different times in history, from miniature to giant light destruction. 


The work from group exhibition "L'horloge à répétition” (The repeating clock). The Left Place, The Right Place. Reims, France. 2023 

Curator: Patricia Couvet