KNOWLEDGE IS LIGHT!

2015

Installation

KNOWLEDGE IS LIGHT! installations.

Both works are to be displayed at schools. The first installation was already exhibited at the Moscow Cadets School No. 45 in early September. The second will be ready in late January, it is also to be displayed at a school.

1. White threads, rays of light, are stretched tight across the classroom from its windows. They outline the perimeter of sun lit areas on the desks and on the floor.
“Knowledge is light, ignorance is darkness!” is written in large letters on the wall above the blackboard. These words were pronounced by Alexander Suvorov, a great Russian general. A plate where this phrase was inscribed hung on the wall above the blackboard in my class at school. In junior grades this slogan frightened me with the darkness of ignorance, arousing the desire to learn.

2. A large monochrome painting, oil on canvas, is based on a black-and-white photograph. It represents school students reading textbooks at their desks in class. There are several holes in the painting with electric lamps sticking out of them. Real lamps are burning over painted books, lighting painted faces of students. The mystic light of knowledge acquires material form.