Signs of Work

The Writing on the Wall exhibition had traveled a quite long road before it was opened at the Kyiv House of the Artist. The project, although well- planned, had long been denied exposition space. The abode in several halls on Lviv Square was, of course, not ideal, but sufficed for the coexistence of artists so very different from one another — Viktor Khomenko, Olena Babentseva, Badri Gubianuri, and Tamara Babak.

The uniting concept seems to best fit abstract art, to which all the project participants tend in some way or another. The most noticeable figures of the four are Gubianuri and Babak, whose canvases require slow and thoughtful perception, being increasingly drawn toward monochromic pictorial surface. What is most important here is nuance, the most subtle overtones, an intimate notional glimmer. Tamara Babak’s wickerwork figures and landscapes are even more ingenious. Here the material and technique predominate. The very technique, wicker-weaving, cannot but arrest the viewer’s attention. Handicraft comes first as the greatest asset of every such work.

To a degree this quality is characteristic of Viktor Khomenko’s creations. The most popular of his mixed media canvases, strongly reminiscent of semiabstract collages, is Protoobject , a long beam of wood covered with a cuneiform pattern of holes varying in shape and size, looking like a medicine man’s tool or some strange ancient musical instrument. Most importantly, it corresponded to the exhibit’s title and lent the whole display a moderately ritual touch.

Writing on the Wall was without doubt a success and one of the best expositions of the season. It had that necessary balance between the form and content, something totally absent in so many topical exhibits. Another important thing is that it rehabilitated yet another almost forgotten adage about the artist’s work as a strenuous effort which is singular, irreplaceable. Such work, in its true original sense, will always be necessary, regardless of any stylistic stratagems, as will remain good works of art.