THE ART SCENE: Kharkiv artist's "Books of Days" exhibited in Kyiv (01/28/01)

THE ART SCENE

Kharkiv artist's "Books of Days" exhibited in Kyiv

by Olesya Ostrovska

KYIV - Kharkiv artist Pavlo Makov says that the key to understanding his special project "Book of Days" is the puzzle - meaning both a contrivance made purposely perplexing to test one's ingenuity, and a toy made of pieces of colored card that can be put together (with a bit of mental effort) to make a picture. Mr. Makov's works are built on this principle, and it's most obvious from looking at his graphic pieces. The artist creates a virtual puzzle, where the smallest detail has its special place and meaning, and being able to put the whole picture together allows us to gain an understanding of the given situation.

In the case of the "Book of Days" - which was on view at the Center for Contemporary Art at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy from December 20, 2000, through January 27 - the idea of the puzzle is used to put together the exhibition itself, where each separate work serves to a certain extent to inform the whole. Moreover, the metaphor for this information is Mr. Makov's life story, with the exhibition becoming a kind of diary that has broken out of its cover and scattered as a puzzle on the gallery walls of the Center for Contemporary Art.

Each work is a separate page of this book and, simultaneously, a piece of the puzzle. If we are successful in putting the puzzle together, we can see a picture in the life of one person: by means of the ordinary, everyday situations portrayed, we can fathom a bit of the life of this individual.

Mr. Makov describes the days he lives by using ordinary stories about his family, friends and acquaintances. He believes that our life does not really exist beyond the limits of other lives, therefore each such description - and each work in this exhibition - is a page taken from his personal diary. Or it can be seen as a puzzle, which if the viewer wishes, can be put together.

While presenting everyday themes, the artist asserts that this very ordinariness can be most intriguing. For example, the fly is an oft-repeated element in his works, but instead of having a negative connotation, it simply underlines the routine and everyday quality of the general atmosphere. At the same time, Mr. Makov demonstrates that global ideas, and even the "spice of life," can be found in ordinary things.

Thus, the Center for Contemporary Art rounded out its book of days in the year 2000 with a presentation of one of Ukraine's most interesting graphic artists. The CCA is supported by, among others, the Kyiv-based International Renaissance Foundation (Kyiv).

Olesya Ostrovska is assistant director at the Center for Contemporary Art in Kyiv.

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