ARTIST VLADIMIR GRIG CREATES HIS WORKS BY GLUING SEED AND BUGLE BEADS ONTO CANVAS. THIS IS AN UNUSUAL MEDIUM, BUT WHAT IS EVEN MORE FASCINATING IS THAT THE THEME OF THESE WORKS IS TIME ITSELF: THE CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE OF THOMAS DE THOMON, SOVIET BOOK ART FROM THE 1960s, AND EVEN A HYPOTHETICAL TIME THAT MAY HAPPEN MILLIONS OF YEARS FROM NOW. IN GRIG’S CANVASES, EPOCHS RUB SHOULDERS, INVADE EACH OTHER, AND EVEN FORM RELATIONSHIPS, BEGETTING NEW THEMES AND MEANINGS. HERE IS WHAT VLADIMIR GRIG HAS TO SAY ABOUT HIS CREATIVE PROCESS AND HOW TO FIND IRONIC AND AMUSING ANSWERS TO GLOBAL AND “ETERNAL” QUESTIONS.

I start by saying that my art is hard to describe in just a couple of words. Then, if I have the chance, I try to give a more nuanced answer. 

I do contemporary art, of course, and from project to project I tackle challenges that I consider topical for the time I am living in. By touching upon both personal and global issues, I try to fully understand their primary artistic nature essence before recreating it in a piece of art. I do this for myself first and for most. I believe that the spiritual aspect of a person’s life is one those ‘personal’ and ‘global’ issues. How do I do it? I think my piece titled “Who am I? Where am I?” is very telling in this respect. It consisted of several parts and took place over a stretch of time. The first part included video, an installation and a series of neoclassical portraits of young people who had “dissolved in time.” 

This is a futuristic parable and it could very well become one of the illustrations of the arguments we are having today about the environmental crisis and the mutation of an individual, animals and their habitats. A fantasy element was very important to me here. As you can understand, the idea for this project leaves a lot of room for fantasies and interpretations. In physical terms, the outcomes of these fantasies were large-scale paintings, a series of prints on aluminium composite sheets, objects, animation films and music compositions for these animations.

As a rule, all my works are, in some way, influenced by literature. At some moment I noticed that influence and accepted this as something natural for me.

In my work I often create characters such as Vasyok Karasev, Napi or the Friendly Toad, for example. I enjoy seeing how they develop and what adventures they have when they migrate from one project to the next. Or our subconscious could also become the main character, just like in 13 Rooms.

My approach to art is more of a film director. I direct my project and subject everything in my command to finding and expressing its main idea.

VLADIMIR GRIG

The most important and challenging moment for me in my daily routine is when I am facing a choice. And the choice is always the most essential element, no matter the goal I set out before me. Earlier or later I must make the choice to kick start the mechanism of turning it into reality. As a rule, I think of many more solutions to an artistic task than I can physically create. Or I have to come up with a few formal solutions, sometimes using different techniques. The necessity of making a choice for me is quite an important issue.

I advise young artists (as a joke, of course) to drop this weird profession before it is too late and make art as a hobby while working as an accountant, economist, chef or manager.

I am continuing work on some projects that I started a long time ago. Any of my works that deal with global issues always have the “little man” and their personal destiny in the centre. I examine their interactions and how they influence one another.  

The project I am working on at the moment is called Detomon. It is a part of the Stories in Pictures series which concerns a circular nature of characters from different eras and cultures in drawings. The series is dedicated to the architect and wonderful draughtsman Thomas de Thomon as well as Rome, St. Petersburg, architecture, history and, of course, literature. A new character, Nap, or Napi, makes an appearance, and also some new characters who accompany the development of his story. This is a stylistic play, the character’s view of himself from his own literary dimension, from the art space. This is about an artist’s view on time and on himself and others in time. Because, essentially, in art time is one – the past, present and future merge into one. 

Importantly, Napi looks like a mushroom, and there is a reason for it. This characteristic is a continuation of a certain tradition in contemporary Russian art, both in St. Petersburg and Moscow schools of contemporary art. I think this is what they have in common, this is where the “mushroom is buried”, so to say. 

Everything. This is a very difficult profession, this is why I respect the work of all artists be they professionals or amateurs. I also respect the labour of everyone who helps them and also their nearest and dearest. I believe that if someone works in a difficult profession, that person is a hero.  A slightly insane hero but still a hero.  

I believe that if someone works in a difficult profession, that person is a hero. A slightly insane hero but still a hero.

Making a prediction in this forever changing universe is very difficult, of course. If you want to make God laugh, as they say… But if I want to play predictions and try to forecast the future of art, we must look into its past. Make yourself comfortable in your arm chair, turn on the lamp and open an art history book. Take a close look at the history of our civilisation. It is very important to learn about the social and historic reasons for the emergence of many types of art. Or, on the contrary the fusion of art and philosophy during the Renaissance influenced a period in our history. The period was “shaped by art”, which, in turn, would give a push to the development of “our” civilisation in the future. This is particularly evident in the history of the Ancient Greece, Etruscan art, the art and civilisation of the Ancient Rome.