Bogdan Kravtsov

Autoarchaeology

Since 2014 till 2018 I worked in my studio in the Museum of Enterpreneurs. I loved that place, but during all four years at the museum the sand sipping through the ceiling was my rival: it was a constant struggle to keep it away from the paintings. As a result, I had to rescan each work multiple times to make sure the image is sand-free.

In my last days there, with emotions of parting, I made this series of nine works, and dirt with rejects of all sorts are the center of attention.

I employed scraps from my earlier sketches, parts from some tools, and all art materials that I knew. Acrylic on canvas in the abstract technique I’ve just developed that year; watercolor on paper; sanding paper; graph paper I used to plan out my paintings; letterpress blocks; plastic, metal, and paper tubing scraps; a toothpick (my paint brush); ribbons; construction paper; confetti from a party hosted at the museum; metal paraphernalia: springs, tacks, pieces of wire, nails; orange silicone cord; a leather cord from a passport cover my grandmother gave me for turning the legal age; silver; nanoblock; lead from colored pencil; I’m sure I forgot something. All of that heavily dusted by over a hundred years old brick crushed by hand in a pepper mill.