Mental journey
Svetlana Kopystiansky – Verpacktes Gemälde / Verpackte Geschichte
07.12.2020
Ready for the big hike, both backpacks are packed. Svetlana Kopystiansky, who had joined the Russian underground scene in the late 70s, emigrated to New York with her husband Igor in 1988, the year the works were created.
The Packed Story (1988) is from the group of works in which were explored visual aspects of the text and a deconstruction of the text in which was used a literary text appropriated from classical novels. In these aspects for the artist were important references to the Russian and international avant-garde of the beginning of the twentieth century. The artist continues the writing at the top edge of the backpack. Thus, she creates a visible, real part on an everyday object and an invisible, presumed part inside the backpack. In a visible or hidden way, this is also how the travel route could run.
While the painting in the style of the abstract expressionism of the New York School in the dark blue backpack is reminiscent of her husband’s art, there is a canvas with handwriting in the other backpack, with which Kopystiansky refers to herself.
