'Vikki' (This painting is a part of an Installation entitled 'Equal Opportunities') Painting

An Installation “Equal Opportunities” The work was inspired by my research on artists Roy Lichtenstein, Katsushika Hokusai and Yayoi Kusama. The installation includes a painting, sculpture and floor area covered with crushed paper balls. The painting is inspired by the painting Drawing Girl (1963) by Roy Lichtenstein. My painting contains the same phrase from Lichtenstein’s work: ‘I don’t care! I’d rather sink than call Brad for help!’ My aim is to illustrate how the meaning of same sentence has completely changed over last 50 years. In 1960th girl was drowning in her tears because she was offended by her boyfriend. Nowadays, after Feminism flourished, women ‘don’t care’ because they don’t feel their selves weaker or ‘inferior’ to men. Lichtenstein depicts the girl faced towards the viewers to emphasize that women like to show off their strong emotions and especially tears. I depicted a girl facing back to the viewers to convey that contemporary women prefer to hide their emotions in order to demonstrate a ‘manly strong will’. Masculine features of the girl in my panting are emphasized by the manly shape of the girl’s figure (e.g. wide shoulders, narrow hips, etc.) and the girl’s pose. She is confidently and bravely aiming the boat ahead, towards unknown horizons. During my research for this project I found out that the waves depicted in the painting Drowning Girl were adapted by Lichtenstein from the early 19th century print The Great Wave off Kanagawa (c. 1829-32) by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. I also researched on the art of Katsushika Hokusai in order to create waves that would refer to both Lichtenstein’s and Hokusai’s waves. The shape of yacht on my painting is also adapted from Hokusai’s print A Wild Sea at Choshi in Shimosa Province. The painting is juxtaposed by the paired sculpture of the yacht that belongs to Brad. The whole sculpture is created out of found materials. The hull of yacht from a suitcase. I think that suitcase is a universal symbol of travelling and moving (which is a crucial extra feature to the static sculpture that supposed to represent a moving object – a sailing yacht). The doll representing Brad is hanged by the neck on the mast. The message on Brad’s t-shirt is adapted from the girl’s words on the painting and means to be a response to her words: ‘I don’t care! I’d rather hang myself than help that bitch!’ Doll (Brad) made out of bubble wrap plastic as a reference that Brad is weak and insincere person (plastic person). Both yachts – in the painting and the sculpture run parallel to each other (paired) but the women and the man do not wish to be on the same boat anymore. Is it good thing or bad – everyone can decide for themselves. Through my installation I have tried point out that over the last 50 years a lot of things have turned upside down. Many women feel themselves to be even stronger than the most men. In the same time, many men are weaker than some women were in Lichtenstein’s time. It’s a kind of joke, of course, but I wanted make my installation look funny (to illustrate an idea that Feminism nowadays leads some people to absurdity) – I want people to smile when they see it. From an aesthetic point of view my aim was to develop one step further Hokusai’s and Lichtenstein’s visual interpretations of the stormy sea waves. At the same time I was interested in developing Lichtenstein’s dot-print-style and line-style painting methods. I researched the works by contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama who is famous for various dot paintings and sculptures. It was the research on the art of Kusama which inspired me with the idea to use dots for the background of my painting not only as a tribute to Roy Lichtenstein and Yayoi Kusama but also to create a depth of pictorial space and sense of perspective. Kusama’s sculptures (Narcissus Garden, 1966—2008) gave me the impetus to resolve a question I wanted to answer: how could I develop one step further Hokusai’s and Lichtenstein’s visual interpretations of the stormy sea waves? I covered the floor area of the installation space with crushed paper balls. The balls made from newspapers published in different languages. I think that choice of such a material helps to convey an idea of travelling through different times, countries, events and cultures. The amounts of paper balls are different throughout the floor area to create an impression of the rising strong waves. It also adds an interactive feature to installation; the viewer would be asked to take shoes off and leave them on the “shore” (by the entrance into installation space). Then, the viewers will be invited to walk through the installation area. They will feel with their feet a texture of paper balls which would be reminiscent to the sensation of the walking on the pebbled seabed. When people will walk over the paper balls it will create a sound similar to the sound sea waves create. I find it an interesting idea to explore in my further work – an interactive sound/visual installation. Every time people will walk though the installation, the texture of the floor area will change and will be never the same again. But it has a strong philosophical significance and refers to the quotation from the classical Greek philosopher Plato ‘Everything flows, nothing stands still”. Link to photographs of the original Installation http://www.tchibor.co.uk/#/installation/4565506567

Painting:Acrylic on Cardboard

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:39.4 W x 39.4 H x 1 D in

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