RECYCLE GROUP
Recycle Group (Krasnodar, Russia) was formed by Andrey Blokhin (1987) and Georgy Kuznetsov (1985) in 2006. Since 2008, the artists have regularly participated in various group shows in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities of Russia. Since 2010, works by the art-group are regularly showcased in international galleries and various contemporary art spaces in France, Italy, Great Britain, USA and Belgium. The artists participated in program of la Biennale di Venezia 2011, 2013 and 2015.
CONVERSION
The project CONVERSION, that refers to the life of a modern man as it is in the age of the world web and new gadgets. The artists compare the globalization of information networks to the conversion to some new ‘religion’ where the scope of information available in the virtual space is a new presiding deity.
The project CONVERSION includes sculptures and bas-reliefs, in which figures of ‘Neo-Apostles’ appear as the bearers of a new sacred knowledge manifested in the stream of virtual information. The display also includes ‘wooden remnants’ of Noah’s Ark, with familiar icons from smartphone screens identifiable in its fragments. To make sculptures of the presumed ‘saints’, the preachers of the new technologies, as well as multi-figured bas-reliefs the artists make use of polyurethane, plastic mesh, rubber, polyethylene and new technologies. Rubbish becomes art to be kept for future generations, while the artists seek to give their viewers an idea of the future traces to be left by the paradoxes of our own age, of what will go down in history. Their sculptures and bas-reliefs take on the appearance of ancient monuments that display the ravages of time, as if artifacts from some lost and forgotten civilization.
The forms and compositions of CONVERSION project are influenced by traditional Christian iconography, yet they are disseminated by contemporary motifs like the info graphics of modern gadgets and app logos.
The letter F, CONVERSION. 2014/2015. Cast polyurethane. 380 X 150 X 40 cm.
Tower raising II, CONVERSION. 2014/2015. Plastic mesh. 300 X 650 cm.
Conferention, CONVERSION. 2014/2015. Plastic mesh. 300 X 500 cm.
Noah’s Ark (detail), CONVERSION. 2015. Solid wood. 160 X 40 X 50 cm.
User, CONVERSION. 2014/2015. Plastic mesh. 300 X 100 cm.
Enlightener 5, CONVERSION. 2014. Cast plastic, lightbox.100 X 90 cm.
Enlightener 5, CONVERSION. 2014. Cast plastic, lightbox.100 X 90 cm.
Enlightener 1, CONVERSION. 2015. Сast polyurethane. 100 X 90 X 70 cm.