Projects
HALASY
Curated by Marta Shcharbakova
Fall & Winter 2021/22
Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College
halasy - a word that describes human voices and electoral votes in Belarusian language.
Alexander Son
Alexander Son is a collage artist from Minsk, Belarus. Before the summer of 2020, Alexander focused on creating lyrical work with elements of satire. That changed when violent and fraudulent presidential elections took place on August 9th, 2020. In just 3 days more than 7.000 people were indiscriminately detained on the streets. While in jail, thousands faced torture, rape, and other forms of abuse from the law enforsement officials. Some prisoners never recovered and died in hospitals. Despite the life threats and continuous persecution of the activists, the people of Belarus continue their protest till this day.
Alexander Son describes collage-making as therapeutic. For him, art-making is a way of making sense of the lawlessness and danger that surrounds him in his home country on the everyday basis. When asked about his work, ALexander says: “I can’t make work about flowers when there are “fireballs” flying around me. I couldn’t live until the new year. But somehow we had to keep going.Even now, I can’t go back to making lyrical work even though I want to. I can’t focus - it’s a huge problem. Loss of concentration is an irreparable loss. I couldn’t distract myself from what’s happening in the country even for 5 minutes.”
Alexander's work deals with collective national trauma, when in the most absurd times nothing helps but painful laughter: “What can be better than glue and a piece of paper? While I glue some papers together I start to look like a person again”, the artist says.
Papa Bo
Rufina Bazlova and “Vyzhyvanka”
Vyzhyvanka is a pun combining two Belarusian words, “embroidery” and “survival.”
Vyshyvanka means “embroidered shirt.”
Vyzhyvats' means “to survive.”
On August 9, 2020, a number of peaceful decentralized protests erupted across the Republic of Belarus to contest the falsified presidential election results. The unprecedented scale of public mobilization caused the illegitimate dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka to quip that these protests were directed by Czech puppeteers who allegedly manipulated them from Prague. Lukashenka’s propaganda uses the metaphor of puppetry and marionettes to discredit the women and men of the protests and thus deprive them of their agency. The same terminology is frequently applied by the Russian government to discredit pro-Europe politicians and leaders of East-Central Europe. The rhetorical trope of the Czech puppeteer later became the subject of many memes within Belarus. This exhibition responds to this discourse by presenting the work of Rufina Bazlova, a Prague-based puppeteer from Belarus whose comic embroidery series The History of Belarusian Vyzhyvanka went viral within the first days of the protests. The medium of traditional embroidery is a widespread transnational phenomenon that uses elements of folk culture as a marker of belonging. Belarusian embroideries are a specific code for recording information about the lives of the nation. Bazlova utilizes this medium and manipulates it digitally to narrate the ongoing saga of the Belarusian uprising where each tableau corresponds to an actual event that took place during the Summer–Winter of 2020.
“The original idea of making a story, a comic in that technique consisted of the fact that historically women who make traditional Belarusian ornaments could neither read nor write and embroidering was the only way to depict the surrounding life. For that reason they created special geometrical signs and predominantly used red to symbolize blood and life on the pure linen background which represents freedom and purity. Belarusian ornaments are in a way a code for our national history, that could be read as a text.” - Bazlova
A Gathering of Change, Dorset Community Library
July 2021
“Grateful to this beautiful mountain home, so happy that we’ve found a way through this very challenging time. It was so nice to show in the Dorset Community Library again and to be sharing my love of art with you. It was this last year that has made me rethink everything. It was in the darkness that we found the answers. Painting and sculpting from what is around has been so joyful and free for me in this series. I was compelled to make these works after witnessing such universal collective hope, action and courage. Implicit in the work is a politics of insistent experimentation and an embrace of ruin. Thank you to @dorsetcommunitylibrary for all your support.”
Jessica Smith
Hope Flag, Acrylic on Cotton, Jessica Smith
Public Exhibit on the Dorset, Green Dorset Vt.
Behind the Scenes
Diana Chipak
Fall & Spring 2021/22
“My name is Diana. I am what some call, a “pandemic student”, i.e., someone who began their college career during the global pandemic. Last year I began attending Bennington College remotely from Ukraine. This meant that I couldn’t see those surrounding me without screens or masks.
In April 2021, I finally arrived on campus to attend classes where I began working in the summer as an intern in the communications department. I was assigned to take pictures of the staff members. While being excited to take pictures with a 50mm Zeiss lens, I had no clue about the magnitude and the meaning behind the project.
Soon enough, this work became a unique opportunity for me to meet many staff members across different departments. Those working behind the scenes to make sure we were safe, comfortable and fed, and those who help us with our academic questions, course, FWTs, and other miscellaneous queries. Because staff members are an integral part of every college student’s experience (including mine). It was truly a wonderful opportunity to meet all of them.”
LAUGH WITH US
{CRY WITH US}
Stephane Mallarme once diagnosed language as the social site and practice through which the subject is constituted. This exhibition was an improvised collaboration in situ and features anti war posters by Bennington College student artists from Belarus, Malawi and the United States. These works are intuitive in nature, streaming out of dialog related to war as an experience and how it alters our spaces, minds, bodies, and collective consciousness. The posters imbue our shared emotions of fear, horror, despair and sympathy and act to help us unite in our current pro-democratic struggles.
All around the world, this has been an incredibly trying and sensitive time. The LAUGH WITH US {CRY WITH US} posters project was conceived of and installed by the BOUNDScollective, an initiative of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College. It is as much an act of healing, acceptance and compassion as it is a way in which, as students, we seek to mobilize our artistic community.
MYSTICAL IMAGES OF WAR
As we move through this incredible period of change, we make time to circle and process. This exhibition is an improvised collaboration organized and curated by Bennington College students from Belarus, Malawi and the United States. Featured artworks by Ira Chipak (Ukraine), Tatiana Moloda (Ukraine), Nina Savenko (Ukraine), Chuna (Russia) and Alexander Son (Belarus). These works are intuitive in nature, streaming out of dialog related to war as an experience and how it alters our spaces, minds, bodies, and collective consciousness. At times these works speak apart from one another. Other times, they appear to share the same insistent voice.
The poster works imbue our feelings of fear, horror, despair, powerlessness and empathy. Both traditional and contemporary iconography has been detailed throughout. The curative theme for this exhibit was inspired by the works of Natalia Goncharova (Mystical Images of War 1914) as well as the street art and pro-democratic posters displayed throughout Minsk during the Belarusian uprising of 2020-21. The MYSTICAL IMAGES OF WAR posters project was conceived of and installed by the BOUNDScollective, an initiative of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College.
Digital Image and Acrylic Spray
Xiao (Smile) & Jessica Smith