Museum of Proletarian Culture by Arseniy Zhilyaev: book review

Museum of Proletarian Culture, The Industrialization of Bohemia (2013) is a reflection of Arseniy Zhilyaev’s exhibition of the same name held from 12 July to 9 September 2012 at the Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow.

The book (catalogue) commences with three essays. The essays discuss the restrictions placed upon art and culture in Russia during the Joseph Stalin era (1978-1953), and the shifts in Russian art over the last 30 years from the 1980s to the present day.

The middle section displays photographs and the history of artists represented in the exhibition – Art Belongs to the People, Model No. 14, Collages of 1980s, Music Boxes and Home Shelves in the 1990s, The Hammerer, Screens, and Abay Wall.

Arseniy Zhilyaev’s exhibition was a ‘museum within a museum’ – ‘a fictional museum populated by characters rather than real historical figures’ – leading to a ‘complex study in which an analysis of museums as institutions and a genealogical analysis of folk art emerges.’ Zhilyaev contrasts two eras: the late Soviet period (the dawn of independent anonymous forms of creativity) and the post-Soviet period (‘ploughboy artists’ and commercial culture). Zhilyaev commences his analysis with a response to Alexei Fedorov-Davydov’s Experimental Marxist Exhibition of 1931. He includes the works of Ruben Beloglazov in Art Belongs to the People, Ilya Dondurenko’s architectural models from matchsticks in Model No. 14, Stepan Lugovo’s The Hammerer, and Islamic Kazakh poet Abay Kunanbayev’s wall.

It finishes with two essays on the Revolutionary Museum and Museum of Revolution. The final word belongs to artist, writer and political activist, Arseniy Zhilyaev (1984-) whose artistic practice ‘poses questions about the cultural production in the postsoviet condition.’

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog