Capricious Heroines Of a Strong Woman
Oksana Stratiychuk (of late known as Berbeka-Stratiychuk) is an artist with a name or, to be more precise, with a style. People visit art exhibits hoping to find her, and she is instantly recognized, much to the visitors’ joy. The most important thing and undeniable proof of her name and style is that others try to be like her, both subconsciously and quite deliberately.
Going from one side to the other, let alone oscillating from one extreme to another, does not become a renowned artist. However, she leaves one with the impression of a perfectly self-confident and determined individual who will keep her emotions in check even when losing sight of what she believes is her most desired goal. In any case, this is true of her handling the subject matter: one theme or image growing into the next, instead of ups and downs, victories and defeats.
It all started in her third year at what was then the Institute of Art in Kyiv. She was majoring in the graphic arts and took up Original Sin. Her fellow students tried to talk her out of it, warning (out of sympathy or wishing to frighten her) that she would surely get a D. Actually, the problem was not so much the topic (things like that were rapidly becoming fashionable in Soviet society at the time), even less so the image-bearing aspect, as the presence of two nude figures. This was not officially forbidden but implicitly discouraged. In addition, her Eve was portrayed wearing a small coquettish hat. Fortunately, no one blew his top or gave her a D. Instead, she had found the key to a treasure trove of subjects and images which has not been exhausted to this day.
Thus two naked figures against a backdrop of exotic flowers, toppling columns, imaginary arcades, fountains both dry and gushing, moth-covered marble cherubs, and so on and so forth. Almost immediately it transpired that only ladies (with the rarest of exceptions) were admitted to that graphic game. These ladies look bored, finicky, or dreamy at best, but never doing anything. However, taking them for, say, Watteau’s harmless freaks would be a mistake for which some cocksure graphic hero could pay with his life. Oksana’s heroines look more like idling amazons. With her taming wild beasts is a matter of routine, something without the least excitement. And they are on a first-name basis with the sphinx and other mythical monsters.
Of course, such a graphic trend could well lead one to scribbling, in the sense of interpretation. Others would see all kinds of things in her prints, even the author’s concealed problems and complexes peculiar to a solitary, albeit strong woman. They would discern irony, sometimes self- irony, again attributing it to solitude combined with a strong will. In reality, Oksana Berbeka- Stratiychuk is dead serious, perfectly consistent and logical. She is not finicky, but her images are. A paradoxical multistory vase surrounded by fruit and topped with three heroines sitting, chatting and swinging their legs. Let me share with you a little secret: it is the author’s variation on the theme of an actual vase, the only difference being that there is no dangling feet on top of the real vase; they sit quiet as befits the baroque.
Sometime after paradoxical vases Oksana Berbeka-Stratiychuk venture still lifes. At first, she used textbook Dutch masterpieces as stage props for her bored nudes, but gradually her still lifes were filled with her own fauna, except that Infusoria were not the first to appear on stage. Parrots did, alive, dead, confined to gold cages, cheerful, multiplying, and always colorful, never frightening. Her crested siren birds did not look forbidding either, rather pretty. Mostly they would fight parrots who would beat them being numerically stronger (e.g., Parrots Ate My Grapes). Well, snakes and lizards with human faces or a lobster with human feet proved a different story, as did her turtle with a horrid mask-like face in lieu of a shell. And the fauna in her still lifes became increasingly aggressive, vegetarianism quickly giving way, so that eating just grapes was no longer enough. Her characters were now attacking each other with growing relish, with the nudes sporting high hairdos and painted fans watching all this amusedly. Oksana Berbeka-Stratiychuk does not consider the still life subject exhausted — or maybe she just keeps her new graphic route to herself.
Be it as it may, she is staging a big exhibit at the Children’s Academy of Art, where she also teaches.
