DMITRY SOKOLENKO
XYZ
26th May - 18th June 2016
Private View
Wednesday 25th May 6.30 - 8.30pm
In association with Stern Arts Ltd
Dmitry Sokolenko does not so much create imagery as find it - in typefaces, logos and symbols, which are magnified and cropped, cut and spliced to a point of complete abstraction. The resulting "pictures" are signs to decipher via the clues in their titles and the visual archives in our heads.
Sokolenko lives and works in Russia. He is a trained microbiologist who now practises as an artist (though he rejects the nomenclature). His biography remains obscure since the only published details are fictive and fantastical.
"You are cordially invited to attend the exhibition 'XYZ' at Jessica Carlisle in London. I don’t know if that city is in the Hansa Union (Hanseatic League), but please feel free to google it. 'XYZ' is not based on Descartes' coordinates (Cartesian + Coordinate = System), but rather is about colour and the idea of meaning in general. The colours in the exhibition are orange and various manifestations of red, with the balance in black & white. The colours are replete with places and events related to those places and people who participated in those events. "But what differentiates this exhibition from others?" asked Prof. Tony Anemone. "None of what's mentioned above sounds like a reason to visit the exhibition, plus it would be better to spend this time of year visiting Lisbon, Maine or Berlin, Maine." "One of the main distinctions of this exhibition, and reasons to see it, is the place where it will be," I answered. "To the left of the statue of President Ronald Reagan, in front of the American Embassy in London." "But, " the scandalously famous professor said, "that's not a good enough reason to see the exhibition, since that president will be there for a long time yet - though as an orientation tool for the embassy, that's not bad! And if someone were to offer the Soviet-style cigarettes "WHITE + SEA = CANAL" (Rus. БЕЛОМОРКАНАЛ) on that spot, that would be a different matter. One could imagine flying over for that reason." The name of the exhibition is not accidental and resulted from an overseas Skype game of Russian roulette..."