The chief geographer of contemporary Ukrainian painting Yuriy Solomko once again tugs at the ever-relevant geopolitical nipple – in the project «G8» the artist reflects on globalization and world government. For this very reason, the beloved potato-philia – that same adoration and aestheticization of cartographic products, which are the main Solomko “trump card” – is given emphasis.
Before us is a metaphor-project, a series of portraits of cities: smiling and laughing faces of children, on which patterns of underground labyrinths, “skeletons of capital subways” are applied. Here is Paris – the smile of a blind girl. Here is Berlin – a radiant Aryan boy. And then – London, Moscow, Washington, Rome, Tokyo, and Ottawa. A simple combination of metro-maps and children’s portraits gives the viewer a rich set of possible readings and interpretations.
YURIY SOLOMKO: “Children are the maturing world government, global government of tomorrow.”
The artist depicts them [the rulers] as the world in an unformed, tender, playful, somewhat unserious state. We see supreme sovereigns (who, it would seem, should be stern planetary puppeteers) in the guise of positive children, and this forces the punitive pitchforks of criticism to be lowered. A moment of “humane gaze” at “inhumane phenomena” arises, so much so that the entire system of stereotypes on this issue rustles, cracks, and foams at the seams.
The maps themselves, symbolizing modern anthills (specific metropolitan contexts), cease to be “just maps” and become allusions to board games and computer arcades.
A moment of irony: speaking about the G8, Solomko uses images of little people for its metaphorical visualization. “Global Rulers are just people,” the artist says. “One should not blindly rely on them; they are also prone to mistakes, doubts, or fear…”
However, Solomko managed to avoid overly subjective judgments and predictability in assessing the global government. In the project «G8» there is neither saluting it nor anti-globalist stench. “I realize that in the future the world will become global and acquire a single government. Today it is only forming, experiencing childhood, and just preparing for its ascent to the planet’s throne. I cannot say whether this is a positive or negative process. The world government is rather a given; an inevitability, whether we want it or not. In any case, it is too early to make one-sided evaluative judgments. Everything is just beginning. The starting point is today.”
Notably, Solomko’s «G8» demonstrates more of a utopia than a realistic prophecy. If we imagine the future as an era of accomplished globalization, then future-humans will hardly retain a rich spectrum of races and cultures. The global person is a person with global blood. He is woven in the process of mixing heterogeneous genetic material. But Solomko does not believe in universal blood and the post-globalist average human. “I do not think globalization will end with the elimination of cultural borders and differences. We will remain ourselves but live in a common space without economic-political borders. The children in my paintings laugh and smile. There is hope in this for a light at the end of the tunnel; sincere and scarce optimism for the present.”
Anatoliy ULYANOV
art janitor (www.proza.com.ua)
especially for the gallery «TSEKH» Comment type: Published comment
Author: Anatoliy Ulyanov
Bibliography:
Anatoliy Ulyanov. About Yuriy Solomko’s project “G8”. Art janitor (www.proza.com.ua)
