Intrusion
I`ve always been attracted by dominant and pressing architectural forms – those which cause fear and amazement by the fact that a human stands behind their creation. A human initiates war and destruction, creates an economic crisis and emptiness, devises new forms of social organization, subordinating his own kind. The man is inherently fragile, transparent, chaotic, and animalistic at the same time.
The aesthetics of sickness and deviation attract me in the same way. In this project, I collected purposely designed images in a certain sequence. I created a very personal mythology, presenting the model of the modern social structure in the image of the evolved ‘vampire’.
The modern ‘vampire’ does not frighten children anymore, on the contrary, the younger generation romanticize the image of the eternal, strong, devilishly attractive and yet at the same time, sickly fragile creature. A cult was made of eternal youth, beauty and power.
The same romantic idea as all political world ideologies, comes from the fear of the imminent future or personal impotence for the present, passing through the stage of purification through acceptance and concessions and then passionately promising eternal grace. In other words, we are talking about a cyclical movement, and if something disturbs us, then we are looking for a way to adapt. In this context, the reality of my project is a path through the dark and surreal aspects of consciousness that unites and justifies the recognizable symbols - images.
The sequence of images in the book can be interpreted by each viewer in its own way, but the main thing is that we see reality through a distorted filter of negation. This project is my attempt to find my place and compromise with the surrounding reality.
Olga Matveeva
2017
According to ancient legends, vampires appeared on the Earth at the same time as the first people. They changed, mutating and imitating.
If we interpret vampirism wider than a myth about aristocratic bloodsuckers, we may assume that each of us carries an element which, unrevealed up to a certain time, is able to turn any human into a savage monster. The history moves spirally – despite external changes the essence of events and their form in many ways repeat the previous ones: tyrannical rulers and their regimes, internecine wars, the global remaking of geopolitical spheres of influence, new inquisition and crusades, the dominance of surrogate social and political ideas, which are repeated by leaders of the countries, etc.
The terrible and the beautiful change places; in war we see ecstasis that is close to sexual one, in sex we see the denial of death, and the death itself acquires grim aesthetic deepness. But actually the smooth, aloof mask of any vampire is just a symbol of global deception. His actions look like a lifecycle of a virus.
And here the most interesting thing happens – in the process of being enslaved the prey gradually becomes an accomplice. We accept this game, and maybe all this isn’t even conformism, but our genetic predisposition that gives us a chance to find salvation in a moment of crisis? Sweet anabiosis instead of non-existence, while real life is left behind the scenes.
They are so close and yet so different – parts of countries, myths, and genitalia – all this is merging in an endless striving to invade and accept, to give and succumb, to own and belong. A greasy lens is projecting horrible figures with broken wings onto black house fronts. These forms drive us from one night to another, deforming and transforming bodies, but we already agree to accept anything.
Explosions cover the sky with multicolor fireworks, while everybody has already supped and is now stealthily looking out of the windows of their stuffy bedrooms.
Alexey Taput