Everyday Objects/Cultural Treasure by Vadim Gushchin

vadim gushchin

everyday objects /cultural treasures

vadim gushchin

everyday objects /cultural treasures

We live in the Universe of Malevich. 2 But very rarely notice it. But Vadim

that has a surface and an edge. That is, a plane in pure form. The plane,

which was based on the relationships of commodity – money – commodity,

Gushchin photographs everyday objects in such a way that it immediately

reduced to the idea of a plane. The two-dimensional surface of pure geometry.

and the establishment of a new Universe of Humanity, freed from the power of

becomes clear that they have originated from the “Black Square”.

At this point we depart from the usual illusionism of photography; from

commodities and money. Malevich’s revolutionary enthusiasm is an integral part

The main idea of design is the sparing use of form. El Lissitzky 3 first

the fact that it is linked to the imitation of reality, and from the imitation of

of his art.

formulated this idea of the “suprematist object”. He was a pupil of Kazimir

painting that imitates reality. In his rejection of illusionism, Gushchin follows in

When photography wins over painting, the catalogue returns. The dominant

Malevich. While Malevich used the expressive means of painting sparingly,

the path of Kazimir Malevich, along the path of pure forms.

object triumphs. Objects made according to Malevich’s designs destroy his

Lissitzky transformed his world for the needs of production. Since then,

Abstract painting has regained the plane. It has given up illusory three-

avant-garde spirit. The new world of suprematist objects returns eternal power

Malevich has been concealed in the depths of the industrial object.

dimensionality in order to manipulate liberated colours.

to objectiveness.

The modern object has the same roots as functionalist architecture. CDs

Malevich wrote: “Colour should evolve out of the pictorial mix into an

There is a paradoxical effect in the photographing of objects. It would seem

and their cases are similar to the club buildings of Konstantin Melnikov 4 and

independent element – into a structure as an individual of the collective system

that it documents reality. That is, presents things as they are. In fact, for this it

Ilya Golosov 5, taken in perspective (this can be seen in Vadim Gushchin’s series

and of individual independence”. 9 Vadim Gushchin applies his theory of colour

takes things beyond their usual context. That is, places every single object in a

Prokofiev, 2011). And plastic meal trays are akin to the architecture of Mies van

structure to photography: each colour exists as a separate link, but they are all

meta-position. And the better the shooting is done, the more accurately the

der Rohe 6 or Frank Lloyd Wright 7 (and this can be seen in Gushchin’s series

connected by one chain, a united system of relationships. If Malevich equated

thing is reproduced; the wider the format, the better the lens, then the more

Foam Plastic, 2011). But in order to notice this, they have to be photographed.

the “painter” to the “colour expert”, then Gushchin may well equate “the

likely it is that the thing will be estranged from its usual existence. Having been

Things demonstrate their architectonics through photographs.

colour expert” to “the photographer”. His photographs are closed colour

photographed, things rise above the reality of their context. And Gushchin’s

Gushchin’s space could be called Matisse-like. This is because the image

systems.

works intensify this feeling, due to the peculiarities of his perspective.

plane falls towards the viewer, just as it does in the great Frenchman’s canvases

Sergei Eisenstein 10 thought about “colour” cinematography. “That which

The world of ideas and the space of everyday life exist in various regimes.

– such as Red Fish (1912). Apart from one, very important, difference: in

is of colour” is that which consciously deals with the psychological meaning

Between the abstract idea of the “suprematist object” and a concrete new

Matisse’s 8 works the objects are laid out on a definite physical surface – for

of colour. In the series Coloured Envelopes different colours indicate different

object is a genetic relationship, but no sameness. Gushchin shows that

example a table, rug, or the ground. Gushchin’s objects are placed on a surface

states: red – joyous, and violet – depressive. “The envelope for me is a sign of

there is no sameness between the idea and the object by contrasting two-

that has lost its physical nature.

fate, an existential message”, the photographer thinks. And the psychological

dimensionality and three-dimensionality. He simultaneously enlivens the

Is this a table before us? Yes, possibly, there was a table in the studio. But the

significance of these signs differs.

two-dimensional world of Malevich and creates the photographic illusion of

Le régime esthétique des arts

defining parts of the table for the viewer are the tabletop and the legs, their

Victory over a thing is one of the key ideas of Suprematism. From being a

three-dimensionality. Namely this illusion of three-dimensionality is the primary

est d’abord un régime nouveau

relationship with each other and their shapes. When we do not see any of this,

catalogue of objects, painting transforms into a structure of its own elements.

condition embedded in the subconscious of the camera as a technical object.

du rapport à l’ancien

the table itself loses its objectiveness, and nothing visually linking the plane

This is the aesthetic aspect of abstraction, but it has another aspect – a

But Gushchin overcomes the primary conditionality by abstracting from three-

Jacques Rancière – Le partage du sensible 1

remaining in front of us with a table exists any longer. Before us is something

political one. Victory over a thing also means the collapse of the old world,

dimensional space. Paradoxically, his objects are three-dimensional things that

Farewell to the sacred object by Mikhail Sidlin

1. “The aesthetic regime is primarily a new regime of relating to the past”. Jacques Rancière, The Distribution of the Sensual – Aesthetics and Politics. St. Petersburg: Publishing House of the European University in St. Petersburg, 2007, p. 27.

3. See Thing. Gegenstand. Objet. No 3. Berlin, May 1922, p. 1.

El Lissitzky (Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, Pochinok [Smolensk Province] 1890 – Moscow 1941), architect, photographer, graphic artist, poster designer, and theorist of design.

2. Kazimir Malevich (Kiev 1879 – Leningrad 1935), artist and philosopher, founder of Suprematism.

4. Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Moscow 1890 – 1974), architect-innovator of the 1920s and 1930s, the creator of the Rusakov Club (1929, Moscow).

5. Ilya Aleksandrovich Golosov (Moscow 1883 – Moscow 1945), Soviet architect, creator of the Zuev Club, built in the constructivist style (1927-1929, Moscow).

7. Frank Lloyd Wright (Richland Center, Wisconsin 1867 – Phoenix, Arizona 1959), architect and designer, creator of the “House above a waterfall” (1935-1939, Pennsylvania).

6. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Aachen 1886 – Chicago 1969), one of the directors of the Bauhaus, architect who worked in the “international style”, creator of the “Glass House” (1946-1951, Plano, Illinois).

8. Henri Matisse (Le Cateau-Cambrai [Nord-Pas-de-Calais] 1869 – Nice 1954), painter, graphic artist, sculptor, one of the leaders of Modernist painting.

9. Kazimir Malevich, “Suprematism”, from the “Catalogue of the Tenth State exhibition – Non-objective Art and Suprematism” / Kazimir Malevich, “Selected works”, vol. 1., M Gilea, 1995, p.150.

10. Sergei M. Eisenstein (Riga 1898 – Moscow 1948), filmmaker, film theorist.

We live in the Universe of Malevich. 2 But very rarely notice it. But Vadim

that has a surface and an edge. That is, a plane in pure form. The plane,

which was based on the relationships of commodity – money – commodity,

Gushchin photographs everyday objects in such a way that it immediately

reduced to the idea of a plane. The two-dimensional surface of pure geometry.

and the establishment of a new Universe of Humanity, freed from the power of

becomes clear that they have originated from the “Black Square”.

At this point we depart from the usual illusionism of photography; from

commodities and money. Malevich’s revolutionary enthusiasm is an integral part

The main idea of design is the sparing use of form. El Lissitzky 3 first

the fact that it is linked to the imitation of reality, and from the imitation of

of his art.

formulated this idea of the “suprematist object”. He was a pupil of Kazimir

painting that imitates reality. In his rejection of illusionism, Gushchin follows in

When photography wins over painting, the catalogue returns. The dominant

Malevich. While Malevich used the expressive means of painting sparingly,

the path of Kazimir Malevich, along the path of pure forms.

object triumphs. Objects made according to Malevich’s designs destroy his

Lissitzky transformed his world for the needs of production. Since then,

Abstract painting has regained the plane. It has given up illusory three-

avant-garde spirit. The new world of suprematist objects returns eternal power

Malevich has been concealed in the depths of the industrial object.

dimensionality in order to manipulate liberated colours.

to objectiveness.

The modern object has the same roots as functionalist architecture. CDs

Malevich wrote: “Colour should evolve out of the pictorial mix into an

There is a paradoxical effect in the photographing of objects. It would seem

and their cases are similar to the club buildings of Konstantin Melnikov 4 and

independent element – into a structure as an individual of the collective system

that it documents reality. That is, presents things as they are. In fact, for this it

Ilya Golosov 5, taken in perspective (this can be seen in Vadim Gushchin’s series

and of individual independence”. 9 Vadim Gushchin applies his theory of colour

takes things beyond their usual context. That is, places every single object in a

Prokofiev, 2011). And plastic meal trays are akin to the architecture of Mies van

structure to photography: each colour exists as a separate link, but they are all

meta-position. And the better the shooting is done, the more accurately the

der Rohe 6 or Frank Lloyd Wright 7 (and this can be seen in Gushchin’s series

connected by one chain, a united system of relationships. If Malevich equated

thing is reproduced; the wider the format, the better the lens, then the more

Foam Plastic, 2011). But in order to notice this, they have to be photographed.

the “painter” to the “colour expert”, then Gushchin may well equate “the

likely it is that the thing will be estranged from its usual existence. Having been

Things demonstrate their architectonics through photographs.

colour expert” to “the photographer”. His photographs are closed colour

photographed, things rise above the reality of their context. And Gushchin’s

Gushchin’s space could be called Matisse-like. This is because the image

systems.

works intensify this feeling, due to the peculiarities of his perspective.

plane falls towards the viewer, just as it does in the great Frenchman’s canvases

Sergei Eisenstein 10 thought about “colour” cinematography. “That which

The world of ideas and the space of everyday life exist in various regimes.

– such as Red Fish (1912). Apart from one, very important, difference: in

is of colour” is that which consciously deals with the psychological meaning

Between the abstract idea of the “suprematist object” and a concrete new

Matisse’s 8 works the objects are laid out on a definite physical surface – for

of colour. In the series Coloured Envelopes different colours indicate different

object is a genetic relationship, but no sameness. Gushchin shows that

example a table, rug, or the ground. Gushchin’s objects are placed on a surface

states: red – joyous, and violet – depressive. “The envelope for me is a sign of

there is no sameness between the idea and the object by contrasting two-

that has lost its physical nature.

fate, an existential message”, the photographer thinks. And the psychological

dimensionality and three-dimensionality. He simultaneously enlivens the

Is this a table before us? Yes, possibly, there was a table in the studio. But the

significance of these signs differs.

two-dimensional world of Malevich and creates the photographic illusion of

Le régime esthétique des arts

defining parts of the table for the viewer are the tabletop and the legs, their

Victory over a thing is one of the key ideas of Suprematism. From being a

three-dimensionality. Namely this illusion of three-dimensionality is the primary

est d’abord un régime nouveau

relationship with each other and their shapes. When we do not see any of this,

catalogue of objects, painting transforms into a structure of its own elements.

condition embedded in the subconscious of the camera as a technical object.

du rapport à l’ancien

the table itself loses its objectiveness, and nothing visually linking the plane

This is the aesthetic aspect of abstraction, but it has another aspect – a

But Gushchin overcomes the primary conditionality by abstracting from three-

Jacques Rancière – Le partage du sensible 1

remaining in front of us with a table exists any longer. Before us is something

political one. Victory over a thing also means the collapse of the old world,

dimensional space. Paradoxically, his objects are three-dimensional things that

Farewell to the sacred object by Mikhail Sidlin

1. “The aesthetic regime is primarily a new regime of relating to the past”. Jacques Rancière, The Distribution of the Sensual – Aesthetics and Politics. St. Petersburg: Publishing House of the European University in St. Petersburg, 2007, p. 27.

3. See Thing. Gegenstand. Objet. No 3. Berlin, May 1922, p. 1.

El Lissitzky (Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, Pochinok [Smolensk Province] 1890 – Moscow 1941), architect, photographer, graphic artist, poster designer, and theorist of design.

2. Kazimir Malevich (Kiev 1879 – Leningrad 1935), artist and philosopher, founder of Suprematism.

4. Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Moscow 1890 – 1974), architect-innovator of the 1920s and 1930s, the creator of the Rusakov Club (1929, Moscow).

5. Ilya Aleksandrovich Golosov (Moscow 1883 – Moscow 1945), Soviet architect, creator of the Zuev Club, built in the constructivist style (1927-1929, Moscow).

7. Frank Lloyd Wright (Richland Center, Wisconsin 1867 – Phoenix, Arizona 1959), architect and designer, creator of the “House above a waterfall” (1935-1939, Pennsylvania).

6. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Aachen 1886 – Chicago 1969), one of the directors of the Bauhaus, architect who worked in the “international style”, creator of the “Glass House” (1946-1951, Plano, Illinois).

8. Henri Matisse (Le Cateau-Cambrai [Nord-Pas-de-Calais] 1869 – Nice 1954), painter, graphic artist, sculptor, one of the leaders of Modernist painting.

9. Kazimir Malevich, “Suprematism”, from the “Catalogue of the Tenth State exhibition – Non-objective Art and Suprematism” / Kazimir Malevich, “Selected works”, vol. 1., M Gilea, 1995, p.150.

10. Sergei M. Eisenstein (Riga 1898 – Moscow 1948), filmmaker, film theorist.

exist in two-dimensional space. Therefore they acquire yet more power.

compositional principles and its own laws of the compatibility of objects. His

the mimetic). The classification of types (or mimetic catalogue) claims that

techniques itself constitutes the artist’s gesture. Any documenting is a form of

His series Lids (2012) achieves the expressiveness of the trompe-l’oeil.

series of recent years are related to Malevich’s compositional principles.

the way it is organised corresponds to the actual organisation of the world

the artist’s relationship to reality. Disguising his authorship, the photographer

Some of this work is as if fixed on a wall. And some of the Cards (2012) seem

Things are important to Gushchin not only because of their form. “Books”

that it describes, and the principles of description are consistent within

manipulates the viewer.

to fall off this imaginary wall. Vadim Gushchin is one of those artists who

and “plastic trays”, and “little lids” exist as categories in a complex system. And

themselves and homogeneous. The poetic catalogue connects heterogeneous

Gushchin returns to subjectivity in its own right. He demystifies the

play with our perception, such as Francisco Infante 11, Georges Rousse 12 or

in this he follows a photographer such as August Sander 17. But there is one

rows; moreover, subjective selection is the main connecting principle. The

photographing of objects, showing us how the very techniques of description

Bernard Voigt 13. But Gushchin’s illusory space has been designed with seeming

significant difference. The idea of classifying types is one of those ideas which

cataloguing principle was important for Surrealism as well as for Conceptual

alter the image of the object. Moreover, he goes much further than Atget in

simplicity, because the space must not distract us from contemplating these

20th century photography borrowed from science of the preceding centuries.

Art.

the subjectivity of description. Objects in Gushchin’s works can act as signs of

ordinary things.

Any scientific classification claims to be absolute. Like Mendeleev’s 18 Periodic

Anonymous Sculptures – a Typology of Industrial Buildings was the title of one

the times, signs of culture and signs of the artist’s presence.

There is a tradition of still-life painting stemming from 17th century

Table, which embraces all existing chemicals, including those that have not yet

of the 20th century’s most famous photographic exhibitions. Bernd and Hilla

Every thing possesses a special character. Napkins (2011) contain direct

Dutch painting. Classical still-life painting is the visual expression of man’s

been discovered. Like August Sander’s 19 Stammappe (portfolio of archetypes),

Becher 22 exhibited in it at the Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, in 1969. For Gushchin, as

traces of human activity – the imprint of lips, a drop of blood, the impression

estrangement from nature, which occurred at the same time as when the

which claims to be a comprehensive description of a society. At the core of

for the Bechers, the principle of the catalogue is important. But his approach

of a glass. Shirts (2011) can be called a self-portrait using an object: for this

natural sciences blossomed. And there is a tradition of the representation

scientific classification lies the concept that objects are potentially limited and

to the space of the work is completely different. Bernd and Hilla Becher were

series Gushchin photographed fragments of his own well-worn clothing, at the

of art objects, which originated in the academic sketch: at first it is like a

that it is possible to find common ground to describe them. But when we deal

occupied primarily with the typology of objects and the comparison of their

moment of transition from being wearable clothes to the time they turn into

preparatory or academic drawing, but already in the paintings of Chardin 14 it

with the world of modern things, it turns out that it’s not only difficult to talk

forms, and they created a “historical archive” 23. For Gushchin, the structure of

rags. The series Prokofiev (2011) portrays the artist’s passion for Prokofiev’s 24

finds its independent character. These two traditions were very important

about the possibility of their limitedness, but even finding common ground

the frame itself is decisive. In his latest series, the objects themselves are not

music in the most unequivocal manner. The plastic objects from Without Title

for the formation of photographic imagery in the very early history of

for their classification is rather problematic. These are objects whose number

so much compared to one another, but rather the individual images. At the

(2012) present us with a portrait of the owner when we begin to place them

photography, in the days of Louis Daguerre 15 and William Talbot 16. Gushchin

is growing unpredictably, and the number of their categories is constantly

same time, these objects are built into the Suprematist model of space. What

in sequence: these are things that belong to a person who has a memory stick

creates a new base while combining these traditions. Although he photographs

increasing. And therefore none of their catalogues can be absolute.

we have here is the poetic syntax of everyday life.

and CD’s. Boxes (2011) – a spectacles case and containers for wide-format film.

still-lifes of objects, each of these still-lifes is part of an endless archive,

“The old estates, historical or notable houses, beautiful facades, beautiful

Documenting is one of the main ideas that the 19th century bequeathed

In Gushchin’s collections all the objects, in one way or another, represent the

continuing the line of the Dusseldorf school, but going far beyond it. Above all

doors, lovely wooden wall panelling, door bells, old fountains, staircases...” 20

to photography. Any documenting claims “objectivity”, that is, that the

presence of their respective owners. And they most often clearly refer to the

because he rejects the “objectivity” of language.

Eugène Atget 21 classified objects to which he was personally attracted, building

photographer presents the viewer with objects “as they are”. It is as if he

artist himself.

Since the year 2000, Gushchin has photographed more than 50 series,

his own “collection”. Gushchin’s principle of describing objects is much closer

switches off his personal vision, arranging series of objects for the sake of the

Things do not just say something about the person who owns them.

each of which represents one of the types of objects. He returns repeatedly

to Atget’s principle than to Sander’s, because Gushchin offers us separate

illusion of comprehensive description. In the way done by Bernd and Hilla

They are a testimony to their own time, to which all of us belong. “Anton

to some of the types. His series Library-1 (2000), Books (2003), Artist’s

series of objects that cannot be reduced to a single system of classification,

Becher, finding the central point of the shot, scaling the architecture to the size

Chekhov’s 25 uncle Vanya says, “I’m forty-seven years old, and if, let’s say, I

Books (2003), Library-2 (2007), Circle of Reading (2010), Rarities (2010) and

but exist by virtue of their contiguity. I can call this the principle of the poetic

of the frame, excluding contrasting light. But, at the same time, any “objective”

live to be sixty, then only thirteen years remain”. “But these days sixty is not

Art Catalogues (2011) are devoted to books. Each one is based on its own

catalogue (in the sense in which the poetic catalogue can be opposed to

photographing is reduced to a sequence of techniques, and the selection of

a limit, and this is connected with pills”, says Gushchin about his series Pills

11. Francisco Infante-Arana (Vasilyevka [Saratov] 1943), photographer, kinetic artist, land-artist, author of “Artefacts” – man-made objects placed in nature.

14. Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (Paris 1699 – Paris 1779), genre painter and author of the still-lifes, master of scenes with objects, such as the Attributes of the Arts (1766).

17. August Sander (Herdorf [Rhineland] 1876 – Cologne 1964), photographer and author of the mega-project People of the 20th Century.

12. Georges Rousse (Paris 1947), an artist who works in photography, makes installations in abandoned and derelict buildings and photographs them.

15. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (Cormeilles-en-Parisis [Ile-de-France] 1787 – Bry-sur-Marne [Ile-de-France] 1851), creator of the first commercially popular photographic process, the daguerreotype.

18. Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (Tobolsk 1834 – St. Petersburg 1907), scientist, discovered the Periodic Law of chemical elements (1869).

13. Bernard Voigt (Cully [Switzerland] 1960), photographer and sculptor, who works with the perception of space.

16. William Henry Fox Talbot (Lacock Abbey [Wiltshire] 1800 – Lacock Abbey [Wiltshire] 1877), inventor of photography (1835), including the negative-positive process (1839).

19. Zeitgenossen – August Sander und die Kunstszene der 20er Jahre im Rheinland (Steidl, Göttingen 2000, p. 29).

20. In: Ben Lifson, Eugène Atget / Eugène Atget (Könemann, Cologne 1997, p. 10).

21. Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget (Libourne [Gironde] 1857 – Paris 1927), photographer who became well known for documenting the architecture and street life of Paris.

22. Bernhard (“Bernd”) Becher (Siegen [Westphalia] 1931 – Düsseldorf 2007) and Hilla Becher (born Hilla Wobeser; Potsdam [Brandenburg] 1934), photographers duo; became well known for their series of photographic images, or typologies, of industrial buildings and structures; founders of the Düsseldorf School of Photography.

23. See Maria Müller, Bernd et Hilla Becher: “Notre œuvre ... est infinite” / Objectivites – La Photographie à Düsseldorf (Schirmer/Mosel, Munich 2008, p. 191).

24. Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Sontsovka [Ekaterinoslav] 1891 – Moscow 1953), composer, pianist and conductor.

25. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Taganrog [Ekaterinoslav] 1860 – Badenweiler [Baden-Württemberg] 1904), Russian dramatist, author of the play Uncle Vanya.

exist in two-dimensional space. Therefore they acquire yet more power.

compositional principles and its own laws of the compatibility of objects. His

the mimetic). The classification of types (or mimetic catalogue) claims that

techniques itself constitutes the artist’s gesture. Any documenting is a form of

His series Lids (2012) achieves the expressiveness of the trompe-l’oeil.

series of recent years are related to Malevich’s compositional principles.

the way it is organised corresponds to the actual organisation of the world

the artist’s relationship to reality. Disguising his authorship, the photographer

Some of this work is as if fixed on a wall. And some of the Cards (2012) seem

Things are important to Gushchin not only because of their form. “Books”

that it describes, and the principles of description are consistent within

manipulates the viewer.

to fall off this imaginary wall. Vadim Gushchin is one of those artists who

and “plastic trays”, and “little lids” exist as categories in a complex system. And

themselves and homogeneous. The poetic catalogue connects heterogeneous

Gushchin returns to subjectivity in its own right. He demystifies the

play with our perception, such as Francisco Infante 11, Georges Rousse 12 or

in this he follows a photographer such as August Sander 17. But there is one

rows; moreover, subjective selection is the main connecting principle. The

photographing of objects, showing us how the very techniques of description

Bernard Voigt 13. But Gushchin’s illusory space has been designed with seeming

significant difference. The idea of classifying types is one of those ideas which

cataloguing principle was important for Surrealism as well as for Conceptual

alter the image of the object. Moreover, he goes much further than Atget in

simplicity, because the space must not distract us from contemplating these

20th century photography borrowed from science of the preceding centuries.

Art.

the subjectivity of description. Objects in Gushchin’s works can act as signs of

ordinary things.

Any scientific classification claims to be absolute. Like Mendeleev’s 18 Periodic

Anonymous Sculptures – a Typology of Industrial Buildings was the title of one

the times, signs of culture and signs of the artist’s presence.

There is a tradition of still-life painting stemming from 17th century

Table, which embraces all existing chemicals, including those that have not yet

of the 20th century’s most famous photographic exhibitions. Bernd and Hilla

Every thing possesses a special character. Napkins (2011) contain direct

Dutch painting. Classical still-life painting is the visual expression of man’s

been discovered. Like August Sander’s 19 Stammappe (portfolio of archetypes),

Becher 22 exhibited in it at the Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, in 1969. For Gushchin, as

traces of human activity – the imprint of lips, a drop of blood, the impression

estrangement from nature, which occurred at the same time as when the

which claims to be a comprehensive description of a society. At the core of

for the Bechers, the principle of the catalogue is important. But his approach

of a glass. Shirts (2011) can be called a self-portrait using an object: for this

natural sciences blossomed. And there is a tradition of the representation

scientific classification lies the concept that objects are potentially limited and

to the space of the work is completely different. Bernd and Hilla Becher were

series Gushchin photographed fragments of his own well-worn clothing, at the

of art objects, which originated in the academic sketch: at first it is like a

that it is possible to find common ground to describe them. But when we deal

occupied primarily with the typology of objects and the comparison of their

moment of transition from being wearable clothes to the time they turn into

preparatory or academic drawing, but already in the paintings of Chardin 14 it

with the world of modern things, it turns out that it’s not only difficult to talk

forms, and they created a “historical archive” 23. For Gushchin, the structure of

rags. The series Prokofiev (2011) portrays the artist’s passion for Prokofiev’s 24

finds its independent character. These two traditions were very important

about the possibility of their limitedness, but even finding common ground

the frame itself is decisive. In his latest series, the objects themselves are not

music in the most unequivocal manner. The plastic objects from Without Title

for the formation of photographic imagery in the very early history of

for their classification is rather problematic. These are objects whose number

so much compared to one another, but rather the individual images. At the

(2012) present us with a portrait of the owner when we begin to place them

photography, in the days of Louis Daguerre 15 and William Talbot 16. Gushchin

is growing unpredictably, and the number of their categories is constantly

same time, these objects are built into the Suprematist model of space. What

in sequence: these are things that belong to a person who has a memory stick

creates a new base while combining these traditions. Although he photographs

increasing. And therefore none of their catalogues can be absolute.

we have here is the poetic syntax of everyday life.

and CD’s. Boxes (2011) – a spectacles case and containers for wide-format film.

still-lifes of objects, each of these still-lifes is part of an endless archive,

“The old estates, historical or notable houses, beautiful facades, beautiful

Documenting is one of the main ideas that the 19th century bequeathed

In Gushchin’s collections all the objects, in one way or another, represent the

continuing the line of the Dusseldorf school, but going far beyond it. Above all

doors, lovely wooden wall panelling, door bells, old fountains, staircases...” 20

to photography. Any documenting claims “objectivity”, that is, that the

presence of their respective owners. And they most often clearly refer to the

because he rejects the “objectivity” of language.

Eugène Atget 21 classified objects to which he was personally attracted, building

photographer presents the viewer with objects “as they are”. It is as if he

artist himself.

Since the year 2000, Gushchin has photographed more than 50 series,

his own “collection”. Gushchin’s principle of describing objects is much closer

switches off his personal vision, arranging series of objects for the sake of the

Things do not just say something about the person who owns them.

each of which represents one of the types of objects. He returns repeatedly

to Atget’s principle than to Sander’s, because Gushchin offers us separate

illusion of comprehensive description. In the way done by Bernd and Hilla

They are a testimony to their own time, to which all of us belong. “Anton

to some of the types. His series Library-1 (2000), Books (2003), Artist’s

series of objects that cannot be reduced to a single system of classification,

Becher, finding the central point of the shot, scaling the architecture to the size

Chekhov’s 25 uncle Vanya says, “I’m forty-seven years old, and if, let’s say, I

Books (2003), Library-2 (2007), Circle of Reading (2010), Rarities (2010) and

but exist by virtue of their contiguity. I can call this the principle of the poetic

of the frame, excluding contrasting light. But, at the same time, any “objective”

live to be sixty, then only thirteen years remain”. “But these days sixty is not

Art Catalogues (2011) are devoted to books. Each one is based on its own

catalogue (in the sense in which the poetic catalogue can be opposed to

photographing is reduced to a sequence of techniques, and the selection of

a limit, and this is connected with pills”, says Gushchin about his series Pills

11. Francisco Infante-Arana (Vasilyevka [Saratov] 1943), photographer, kinetic artist, land-artist, author of “Artefacts” – man-made objects placed in nature.

14. Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (Paris 1699 – Paris 1779), genre painter and author of the still-lifes, master of scenes with objects, such as the Attributes of the Arts (1766).

17. August Sander (Herdorf [Rhineland] 1876 – Cologne 1964), photographer and author of the mega-project People of the 20th Century.

12. Georges Rousse (Paris 1947), an artist who works in photography, makes installations in abandoned and derelict buildings and photographs them.

15. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (Cormeilles-en-Parisis [Ile-de-France] 1787 – Bry-sur-Marne [Ile-de-France] 1851), creator of the first commercially popular photographic process, the daguerreotype.

18. Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (Tobolsk 1834 – St. Petersburg 1907), scientist, discovered the Periodic Law of chemical elements (1869).

13. Bernard Voigt (Cully [Switzerland] 1960), photographer and sculptor, who works with the perception of space.

16. William Henry Fox Talbot (Lacock Abbey [Wiltshire] 1800 – Lacock Abbey [Wiltshire] 1877), inventor of photography (1835), including the negative-positive process (1839).

19. Zeitgenossen – August Sander und die Kunstszene der 20er Jahre im Rheinland (Steidl, Göttingen 2000, p. 29).

20. In: Ben Lifson, Eugène Atget / Eugène Atget (Könemann, Cologne 1997, p. 10).

21. Jean-Eugène-Auguste Atget (Libourne [Gironde] 1857 – Paris 1927), photographer who became well known for documenting the architecture and street life of Paris.

22. Bernhard (“Bernd”) Becher (Siegen [Westphalia] 1931 – Düsseldorf 2007) and Hilla Becher (born Hilla Wobeser; Potsdam [Brandenburg] 1934), photographers duo; became well known for their series of photographic images, or typologies, of industrial buildings and structures; founders of the Düsseldorf School of Photography.

23. See Maria Müller, Bernd et Hilla Becher: “Notre œuvre ... est infinite” / Objectivites – La Photographie à Düsseldorf (Schirmer/Mosel, Munich 2008, p. 191).

24. Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Sontsovka [Ekaterinoslav] 1891 – Moscow 1953), composer, pianist and conductor.

25. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Taganrog [Ekaterinoslav] 1860 – Badenweiler [Baden-Württemberg] 1904), Russian dramatist, author of the play Uncle Vanya.

(2011). The form of Coloured Envelopes (2010) also expresses its time, as the

imposed upon him. Le Corbusier’s 26 exemplary building, the “machine for

which the ideal object mutates into a household item. He reveals the complex

object, and as our disconnection from that which is sacred. These closed

form of Photo Album (2012) once expressed its era: on one of the album pages

living”, presupposes an ideal citizen, but for the actual inhabitants of the Unité

relationship between form and function, photographing everyday objects as

books show the inaccessibility of “cultural treasures”, estrangement from the

we see the portrait of the artist’s father in his youth. Everyday objects are the

d’Habitation in Marseille this high-rise building was not very comfortable. In any

cultural treasures. The difference between an “everyday object” and a “cultural

past. “The Sacred” ends up in archive files, like in the series Rarities.

frozen signs of time.

case, as an object fulfils its functions, changes in its form are caused. And these

treasure” lies only in the duration of storage, in the fact that the museum is

The last of the photographs reminds one of Malevich’s abstract art. The

The industrial object is in principle opposed to the sacred object. “Industrial”

changes may alter the status of the object.

the sacred rubbish heap of culture.

entire series Business Cards (2012) is devoted to business card folders, and their

means mass-produced, impersonal and estranged. “Sacred” means unique and

Photography transforms things into images of things. What is the purpose

One of the first photographs in this book refers to the Russian Church.

content. In the concluding photograph the main element is a blurred card. We

sublime: that which is respected and worshipped. Vadim Gushchin highlights

of this transformation? In advertising photography, the ennobling image of an

The photo from the series Circle of Reading (2010) is permeated with religious

cannot read what’s on it. But it is the business card of the artist’s father. If we

this contradiction as an issue. The industrial object becomes intimate because

object promotes sales. This is the image that we see in leaflets and brochures,

associations. The binding of the lower book resembles the colour and format

read the entire book from beginning to end from the neo-Freudian viewpoint,

of the literal physical contact with man, as happens with napkins. It acquires

in magazines and on billboards. The image in which the form of the object is

of cheap icons of the 19th century. The embossed cover of the top volume is

then we will discover that we have been told anew the story of the separation

its own identity at the moment of breaking or of opening the package (as

perfectly tailored to its function. Design today has become the ideology of the

similar to a typical 19th century Psalter (the inscription says: “For the Russian

from the Big Other; the story in which everyday things have taken the place of

is the case with plastic trays). It becomes unique when it goes out-of-date,

commercial catalogue.

people. 25 kopecks.”). The rubber bands form a Christian cross.

sacred objects.

like a lid. It is worshipped when it becomes a part of someone’s fate, like

Anna and Bernhard Blume 27 conducted their constructivist experiments on

The book is presented in Gushchin’s photographs as a sacred object.

pills. An industrial entity is estranged only when we consider it as part of a

the average kitchen of German city dwellers. Their combining of the Russian

Moreover, the sacredness is emphasised in two ways. One of them is the

depersonalised production process. When in use, it absorbs the traits of the

Avant-garde with bourgeois household items served as one of the sources

association with traditional religious ceremonial objects by colour, texture

person using it. Gushchin shows how estrangement disappears. How objects of

of inspiration for Vadim Gushchin but, without a doubt, the world of his

and form. The other is the symbol of inaccessibility. In the series Circle of

everyday life acquire individual value.

images is utterly different. He does not ridicule meaningless accumulation. In

Reading, the rubber bands signify that reading is forbidden; in the series Rarities

The purity of form refers us to the ideal world of suprematist objects.

his photographs, objects acquire meaning as a result of those fine individual

(2010) it is plastic files; and in the series Art Catalogues (2011) the fragmented

But the details and textures show us the individuality of each of the objects

bonds that are formed between the consumer and the object itself. We live

nature of what is shown. Directly following Walter Benjamin 28, the artist

presented. From a distance, Gushchin’s works are perceived as flawless models.

amongst unnecessary products, which we still cherish. The internalisation

demonstrates the classical way of making a work sacral, the way through which

But the closer the viewer studies them, the more he notices that every thing

of the commodity takes place. This is the main trauma of consumer society.

the book attains its aura.

possesses its own set of imperfections or peculiarities. The fine balance

The constant separation from things to which one has become accustomed,

The book is an object of Russian culture of the 19th and 20th centuries that

between pure form and real objectiveness gives a work its special appeal.

because new ones must replace them. The artist pulls them out of the flow of

possesses a particular aura. The intelligentsia of this era worshipped literature;

Form and function – this is what a designer sees in an object. El Lissitzky’s

everyday life halfway along their journey from the factory to the rubbish heap.

the writer was assigned the role of a demigod or a messenger of the gods.

theory of things does not assume the personal appropriation of them, of all

Or from the factory to the museum.

Vadim Gushchin photographs books by Tolstoy 29 and Gorky 30. But rubber

these breakdowns, of the wear and tear, touches and saliva stains. Moreover,

Gushchin offers us an image of the object that moves away from the banal

bands bind these volumes, preventing us from reading them. This barrier to

the function of the object may be offered to the consumer, but it cannot be

mythology of the commodity. His photographs show us that fine line beyond

reading can be interpreted in two ways: as the closed nature of the sacred

26. Le Corbusier (born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris; La Chaux-de-Fonds [Switzerland] 1887 – RoquebruneCap-Martin [France] 1965), architect who worked in the so-called “international style”, painter, designer, journalist, creator of the Unité d’Habitation of Marseilles (1947-1952).

27. Anna Blume (born Anna Helming; Bork [North Rhine, Westphalia] 1937) and Bernhard Johannes Blume (Dortmund 1937 – Cologne 2011), art photographers duo, authors of the project Transcendental Constructivism.

28. Walter Benjamin (Berlin 1892 – Port-Bou [Spain] 1940), philosopher, art historian, literary critic, author of the essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936).

29. Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy (Yasnaya Polyana [Tula] 1828 – Astapovo [Ryazan] 1910), Russian prose writer, essayist, religious philosopher.

30. Aleksei Maximovich Peshkov, primarily known as Maxim (Maksim) Gorky, (Nizhny Novgorod 1868 – Gorki [Moscow] 1936), Russian novelist, playwright, essayist.

(2011). The form of Coloured Envelopes (2010) also expresses its time, as the

imposed upon him. Le Corbusier’s 26 exemplary building, the “machine for

which the ideal object mutates into a household item. He reveals the complex

object, and as our disconnection from that which is sacred. These closed

form of Photo Album (2012) once expressed its era: on one of the album pages

living”, presupposes an ideal citizen, but for the actual inhabitants of the Unité

relationship between form and function, photographing everyday objects as

books show the inaccessibility of “cultural treasures”, estrangement from the

we see the portrait of the artist’s father in his youth. Everyday objects are the

d’Habitation in Marseille this high-rise building was not very comfortable. In any

cultural treasures. The difference between an “everyday object” and a “cultural

past. “The Sacred” ends up in archive files, like in the series Rarities.

frozen signs of time.

case, as an object fulfils its functions, changes in its form are caused. And these

treasure” lies only in the duration of storage, in the fact that the museum is

The last of the photographs reminds one of Malevich’s abstract art. The

The industrial object is in principle opposed to the sacred object. “Industrial”

changes may alter the status of the object.

the sacred rubbish heap of culture.

entire series Business Cards (2012) is devoted to business card folders, and their

means mass-produced, impersonal and estranged. “Sacred” means unique and

Photography transforms things into images of things. What is the purpose

One of the first photographs in this book refers to the Russian Church.

content. In the concluding photograph the main element is a blurred card. We

sublime: that which is respected and worshipped. Vadim Gushchin highlights

of this transformation? In advertising photography, the ennobling image of an

The photo from the series Circle of Reading (2010) is permeated with religious

cannot read what’s on it. But it is the business card of the artist’s father. If we

this contradiction as an issue. The industrial object becomes intimate because

object promotes sales. This is the image that we see in leaflets and brochures,

associations. The binding of the lower book resembles the colour and format

read the entire book from beginning to end from the neo-Freudian viewpoint,

of the literal physical contact with man, as happens with napkins. It acquires

in magazines and on billboards. The image in which the form of the object is

of cheap icons of the 19th century. The embossed cover of the top volume is

then we will discover that we have been told anew the story of the separation

its own identity at the moment of breaking or of opening the package (as

perfectly tailored to its function. Design today has become the ideology of the

similar to a typical 19th century Psalter (the inscription says: “For the Russian

from the Big Other; the story in which everyday things have taken the place of

is the case with plastic trays). It becomes unique when it goes out-of-date,

commercial catalogue.

people. 25 kopecks.”). The rubber bands form a Christian cross.

sacred objects.

like a lid. It is worshipped when it becomes a part of someone’s fate, like

Anna and Bernhard Blume 27 conducted their constructivist experiments on

The book is presented in Gushchin’s photographs as a sacred object.

pills. An industrial entity is estranged only when we consider it as part of a

the average kitchen of German city dwellers. Their combining of the Russian

Moreover, the sacredness is emphasised in two ways. One of them is the

depersonalised production process. When in use, it absorbs the traits of the

Avant-garde with bourgeois household items served as one of the sources

association with traditional religious ceremonial objects by colour, texture

person using it. Gushchin shows how estrangement disappears. How objects of

of inspiration for Vadim Gushchin but, without a doubt, the world of his

and form. The other is the symbol of inaccessibility. In the series Circle of

everyday life acquire individual value.

images is utterly different. He does not ridicule meaningless accumulation. In

Reading, the rubber bands signify that reading is forbidden; in the series Rarities

The purity of form refers us to the ideal world of suprematist objects.

his photographs, objects acquire meaning as a result of those fine individual

(2010) it is plastic files; and in the series Art Catalogues (2011) the fragmented

But the details and textures show us the individuality of each of the objects

bonds that are formed between the consumer and the object itself. We live

nature of what is shown. Directly following Walter Benjamin 28, the artist

presented. From a distance, Gushchin’s works are perceived as flawless models.

amongst unnecessary products, which we still cherish. The internalisation

demonstrates the classical way of making a work sacral, the way through which

But the closer the viewer studies them, the more he notices that every thing

of the commodity takes place. This is the main trauma of consumer society.

the book attains its aura.

possesses its own set of imperfections or peculiarities. The fine balance

The constant separation from things to which one has become accustomed,

The book is an object of Russian culture of the 19th and 20th centuries that

between pure form and real objectiveness gives a work its special appeal.

because new ones must replace them. The artist pulls them out of the flow of

possesses a particular aura. The intelligentsia of this era worshipped literature;

Form and function – this is what a designer sees in an object. El Lissitzky’s

everyday life halfway along their journey from the factory to the rubbish heap.

the writer was assigned the role of a demigod or a messenger of the gods.

theory of things does not assume the personal appropriation of them, of all

Or from the factory to the museum.

Vadim Gushchin photographs books by Tolstoy 29 and Gorky 30. But rubber

these breakdowns, of the wear and tear, touches and saliva stains. Moreover,

Gushchin offers us an image of the object that moves away from the banal

bands bind these volumes, preventing us from reading them. This barrier to

the function of the object may be offered to the consumer, but it cannot be

mythology of the commodity. His photographs show us that fine line beyond

reading can be interpreted in two ways: as the closed nature of the sacred

26. Le Corbusier (born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris; La Chaux-de-Fonds [Switzerland] 1887 – RoquebruneCap-Martin [France] 1965), architect who worked in the so-called “international style”, painter, designer, journalist, creator of the Unité d’Habitation of Marseilles (1947-1952).

27. Anna Blume (born Anna Helming; Bork [North Rhine, Westphalia] 1937) and Bernhard Johannes Blume (Dortmund 1937 – Cologne 2011), art photographers duo, authors of the project Transcendental Constructivism.

28. Walter Benjamin (Berlin 1892 – Port-Bou [Spain] 1940), philosopher, art historian, literary critic, author of the essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936).

29. Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy (Yasnaya Polyana [Tula] 1828 – Astapovo [Ryazan] 1910), Russian prose writer, essayist, religious philosopher.

30. Aleksei Maximovich Peshkov, primarily known as Maxim (Maksim) Gorky, (Nizhny Novgorod 1868 – Gorki [Moscow] 1936), Russian novelist, playwright, essayist.

circle of reading 2010

circle of reading 2010