HIS SILENCE IS LIKE LIGHTNING
6.06.2017

Exhibition of Victoria Begalskaya and Alexander Vilkin in the art residence «Vyksa»
The artists worked on the exhibition for more than a month and a half, having arrived at the residence at the end of April. The viewer will be presented 5 works, each of which is inspired by Vyksa motifs from which the artists drew, nevertheless creating a painting that would refer not only to individual episodes in the history of the region, but also to world history and the history of art.

In the flagship work of the exhibition, a knight prepares to fight a crocodile. The knight's appearance is unsurprising for two reasons. Firstly, the knight is a regular character in the duo's works, and secondly, the reference to the noble helmet in the crown, depicted on the coat of arms of the Batashev family, which was included in the noble armorial of families of the All-Russian Empire, is evident. The crocodile, against which the knight is thrusting, is proportionally and compositionally superior to his opponent. The artists themselves see it as something incomprehensible and huge. It is either Vyksa giant metallurgical factory, the power of which is so striking, or the Old Testament Leviathan, a sea monster, a terrible reptile, the only analogue of which in local mythology is the flammable serpent defeated by Dobrynya Nikitich. It should be noted here that the composition of this work may refer to Ivan Bilibin's «The Fight between Dobrynya and the Serpent», but the scene depicted by the artist takes place as if just before the inevitable moment of the fight, anticipates the battle and enjoys a vague situation, through which the tension breaks through.

The artists' project is a mysterious bestiary in which giant tortoises, outlandish birds, and sad monkeys coexist, surrounded by lush greenery and magnificent flowers. All this life created on canvases takes us back to ancient times, when the image of animals almost never met the prototype, such as the famous engraving by Dürer, who blindly depicted a rhinoceros, a gift to the Roman Pope, which sank with the ship that was supposed to deliver it.