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As an artist I do not believe in contemporary realistic cityscapes, no matter how
masterful they are. Even less so do I believe in un-altered chunks of material world, framed
or unframed, offered to the public as art. In my opinion both kinds represent un-filtered
passive admiration of one's superficial and rather crude reality. I think that what we look at
takes a far more serious reflection by an artist before it deserves to be called Art.
I am convinced that absolute freedom in art is no more than a mirage. Like a vanishing
point, not only it is not achievable, but also constant strive for being totally uninhibited
fundamentally contradicts the very nature of art. By trying to free myself I instead created un-
freedom within and I recognized it as a blessing because this un-freedom was my very own
un-freedom. I built my personal space inside it, I fenced in all I was made of and then I
gladly confined myself into this space. I now open all the windows into this space to share
what is inside with the outsiders. This is the moment of great joy for me because this space
has never existed before. It came into being by me and I named it My Little Perception of the
Universe.
I think that creating this personal space and learning how to always work from inside of
it—is the most important achievement for an artist. This space of mine never fails to reward
me with consistency and inspiration. Somehow this word “inspiration” seems to be
disappearing from the art writings in our age of conceptual art. I think if there is a body of
work that is both unique and consistent—it is more than enough to be qualified as a
concept. I look at this contradiction between the conceptual and the beautiful as shallow,
and artificial, and paranoid. To me intellectual value of an artistic idea can not and should
not be separated from the properties of artistic values of the piece. Besides, Idea, Per-se, is
always rational; Art is emotional and for this reason irrational to a certain degree. All great
art of the past is as beautiful, as it is conceptual, as it is somewhat irrational.
It is also inspirational. I am convinced that the difference between what suddenly dawns
on you and what you labor for to invent—is the difference between art and design. I know—I
have done both and this is how I learned the most important guideline-how not to fight the
feeling. The conflict of interests between the Rational and the Irrational is eternal. The
question is-does the value of an intellectual Idea alone dominates enough to substitute for
Art? I don’t think so. I am sure it doesn’t.
Not unlike theater, my work attempts to counterpart outside reality with no ambition to
compete with it. It is just a window into my own parallel world, my Little Perception of the
Universe.
Alexey Klimov
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