We continue the programme of chamber exhibitions focusing on a single work as part of Theatre in Context, a joint project of The Naked Room and Malyi Teatr. The third show in the exhibition hall on Honchara Street will be Pink Dreams by contemporary Ukrainian artist Olesia Trofymenko. In this painting, which incorporates embroidery elements, the artist revisits the theme of the operation of media images, a subject she has already explored.
The media transform neutral images into ones that involuntarily affect the viewer. Artists do the same, but the outcome of their work differs. The media deliberately conceal the mechanisms of visual influence, compelling the viewer to believe in a single interpretation of the image. Artists, however, make this mechanism visible, allowing space for multiple interpretations.
In Pink Dreams, we do not witness an actual scene, but rather how it might appear on television screens or in photographs. We cannot be certain how ships or military facilities are destroyed in temporarily occupied Balaklava. We are not even sure if it is indeed Balaklava. But our imagination suggests that it is. Here, Olesia Trofymenko is not so much working with the reproduction of media reality as with its desired image. The artist presents us with a vision that perhaps all Ukrainians dream of seeing—the liberation of Ukrainian Crimea, the liberation of Balaklava. At the same time, the artist offers an ironic take on the creation of Ukrainian memes about the full-scale invasion. She depicts the explosions on the canvas not as cotton flowers—one of the main memes and expressions of the current war—but as lush peonies or roses.
The work will be on view from 14 October to 14 November at the theatre at 33 Honchara Street: Thursday-Sunday from 13:00 to 17:30. The exhibition is also open to the audience of the Malyi Teatr before the performance and during the intermission.
Exhibition opening: 14.10 at 18:40 at 33 Honchara Street.