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3DTotal: I noticed that you were raised in Siberia in an industrial area amidst the Taiga. How do you feel that growing up in that part of the world has had an impact upon your work as an artist?
Vitaly: Living in Siberian Soviet Russia has given me a great art education and provided me with an experience of two lifetimes, since I now live in Canada, which is a very different life compared to Russia. In terms of just education in Siberia; I had high arts school Monday to Friday, where I painted sketched crafted for 4 hours daily, right after regular school for nearly two years and it was completely free. Compared to Canada, Toronto - such education doesn’t exist here and all the art schools are incredibly expensive. Akademgorodok, Siberia (a science city where I lived) had a surprisingly clear notion about green architecture as universities, roads and buildings were encased in deep forests with a web of gravel paths interconnecting buildings. I camped and hiked daily on these paths, right outside my apartment building. Walk far enough and all civilization will disappear, and before you, nothing but a green ocean as far as the eye can see; waves of wind running back and forth between tree foliage, whispering an arcane tune and colliding at the shores of mountains and steppes. My very first art inspiration came to me in |
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1995, Novokuznetsk, Siberia. On the gabled cottage roof, covered in wooden planks, mouldings and swirly carvings, where I met a local artist. He was drawing some kind of forest on his canvas, via the view from the rooftop. I admired his glorious skill and pondered what it would be like to become an artist myself. Later on, I was enjoying a nice hike
via the good old Trans-Siberian railway of the
Soviet Union, while climbing various green mountains, covered with lush vegetation, with a group of good friends of that time. Upon the climb, we sat on the mountain side, enjoying the mid-day sun bursting though the clouds, in an explosion of light rays that lived on their own accord, playing with the shadows of the mountains, forests, and fields below. The wind rolled about the fields, creating a magical, wavy sea of orange grasses. And from that moment on, I’ve said to myself: “Every artist has their style. Whatever shall mine be?” Whilst staring at those rays of light, I decided “I shall become the master of the landscape and the sky, and draw it in
a manner as of a tasty delicacy, that can be consumed in large quantities via the spoon of visual perception - and thus the delectable sky, full of light rays that you see in most of my works now, was born.” It took me about (counts fingers),
15 years to master those rays of light. |
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3DTotal: What was it that prompted a move to Canada as opposed to anywhere else ?
Vitaly: Over 131 million Russians left their motherland to live in Europe/USA/Canada/Australia, due to the unstable political/financial situation, war and conscription. The gap between the rich and the poor is extremely wide. Crime has been on the rise ever since the collapse of the Soviet law systems as there has been nothing to replace them. I was just one of those millions. Canada just had a good immigration policy at the time. In fact, I could have ended up anywhere: Germany, Italy, USA, etc. Interestingly enough - My great grand father had a chance to leave and go to the United States, as he spoke Chinese and studied in China. He was a patriot however, and stayed in Russia becoming a famous engineer and artist who painted portraits of Stalin and Lenin. He received numerous gold medals and awards and was proclaimed a “Hero of Soviet Union”; only to be sentenced to death as a traitor in one of the Soviet Labour camps along with millions of other innocent Russians during Stalin’s insanity of 1935-40 simply because he spoke Chinese. |
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3DTotal: A sad end to what appears to be an amazing life. How does life compare in Canada for you ?
Vitaly: Life in Toronto, metaphorically is a “clear calm in a wave-less ocean”, compared to the “stormy sea full of lightning and thunder and rain” of life in Siberian Russia. Living in a state of calm is nice, safe, secure, but there’s little motion, time as it seems is standing eternally still. Meanwhile, living in a storm is dangerous, but your ship moves forward to conquer new frontiers. In a storm the captain has a far greater chance of perishing, living in eternal danger, living in fear, never having a chance to stop and rest, and time runs at an ever expanding rate, accelerating, rushing forwards. Life there is eternally an intense motion - people quickly change, quickly grow up, quickly finish university, quickly marry. Toronto is a multicultural corporate paradise, where many aspects of life are controlled by massive USA corporations. Toronto is a host to hundreds of nations, yet strangely enough - a lot of culture is lost in the stream of multiculturalism or stemmed by corporate powers. Free entertainment is hard to come by, a lot of things are based on their monetary values. Toronto is grid-based, streets are unnaturally straight, buildings are all square, the downtown core has little or no trees, everything is encased in concrete, glass and steel, tall skyscrapers rise to the heavens and block out all starlight during nights. Man has triumphed over vegetation and earth, by locking up the ground in concrete blocks. Free camping is nearly impossible to find, parks don’t represent real nature, but rather are a “well maintained, confined, and controlled nature”, trimmed, sprayed and washed monthly.
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3DTotal: It sounds as if Toronto lacks much of the vitality and power that the Siberian wilderness offered. Have you found any wild areas in Canada that match it in beauty and magnitude ?
Vitaly: Of course. Canada is as big and beautiful as Russia. Grand sceneries of wilderness exist, just not near the big city of Toronto. It merely requires a hefty 200-300+ km drive north, or a plane ticket to British Columbia.
3DTotal: There seems to be an apocalyptic theme that runs through much of your imagery. What is the thinking behind this ?
Vitaly: “We find that the average-there are a number of different size atomic bombs. The total devastation varies, but they average on this earth map here... If they are expertly spread out, you’ll find we really get a complete coverage of all humanity”. Excerpt from Buckminister Fuller’s lecture, “The World Game” From the darkest dreams of imagination in my starkly-realistic and highly-detailed style “Dreaminism” I bring to my viewers, visions of the future that will inevitably come to pass if mankind’s planet-wide industrial machine isn’t adjusted in time. I have stood witness to a fall of a Nation and great noble ideals. I have seen Russian cities ravaged by human carelessness, industrialization, depression, oppression, crime and war. I have seen science fail and unleash death in the dark cases of Chernobyl and the Aral Sea “accidents”. My vision is that of a Romantic artist, with one exception - to showcase not just the destructive power of nature, but also the destructive power of man. |
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