Asteroids and comets have turned into monsters with eyes: an unusual exhibition

Space boulders look like cartoon characters

The Sistema gallery opened the art season with a new project by Rostan Tavasiev, “Asteroids and Comets.” The artist presented a series of paintings and installations depicting asteroids and comets with eyes, which made the cosmic lumps look like cartoon characters. However, this is not just a joke, but a real prospect. This is what observation posts for a space mission to Mars or other planets could look like.

“By filling space with art, we make it more humane, clearer and closer: in essence, this is its exploration,” says artist Rostan Tavasiev. – The idea with eyes is very simple, children often use it to humanize objects, it is also a common technique in animation. Moreover, it is often found in wildlife. For example, some fish have eyes at the back, they are also on the tail of a peacock, and they are found on the wings of butterflies. This camouflage is used for mimicry or to ward off predators. I figured since this idea worked so well on Earth, it would work in space.

The new space series “works” with the viewer like in a cartoon. Before us are blocks hovering in space or flying through it with acceleration, with large or small round eyes of different colors – green, brown, blue. Each of these giant stones seems to have its own character and mood. And above the painting, under the ceiling, you can find big-eyed stones hanging in a row. Art objects cast spectacular shadows on the walls, painted with stars, so that it seems that you are not in a gallery, but in outer space and experiencing the gaze of asteroids and comets. Big brother is watching you, but this doesn’t make you feel uneasy at all; on the contrary, the cosmos seems alive and kind.

It was no coincidence that the stones with eyes hung in an orderly row. Before us are the asteroids of the Great Belt, which is located between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists from different countries hope to organize a settlement on the Red Planet in the next few decades. And on the asteroids of the Great Belt it is planned to place observation posts that will study the Universe and where at the same time they will mine all sorts of useful things (for example, iron) for a mission on Mars. So Tavasiev’s installation is a visualization of what such observation points could look like.

From the cosmic hall with big-eyed comets and asteroids we find ourselves in the kingdom of nebulae. Here are the artist’s paintings, graphics and video works, which also involve the exploration of outer space through art. These are sketches of sculptures whose size can reach more than thirty trillion kilometers!

A planetary nebula is the sunset of a star, the finale of its life. After billions of years of shining, the star ages and explodes, turning into a nebula – in the form of a sphere or a jagged disk. Why not give this star monument a sculptural form? – the artist thought, and created a series of romantic and funny nebulae. The names speak for themselves: “One heart for two”, “Vertigo”, “Sleeping Hare”, etc. But these fantasies also have a scientific basis and involve the transformation of very specific nebulae.

From space projects the path leads to the earlier works of Rostan Tavasiev. But no less mischievous. The floor below presents paintings drawn with toys. Almost 20 years ago, the artist came up with his own method – to paint not with a brush, but with soft toys – and called it “hippopotamus painting”. Moreover, the “tool” with which the picture was created becomes part of it and is attached to the host. And this is not necessarily a behemoth, as you might think from the name of the author’s method. The artist’s paintings include dogs, bears and hares. They seem to float in picturesque weightlessness.

After the first experiments in “hippotopic painting”, the method went beyond drawing. The artist began to turn the paintings themselves into toys. Here, for example, is an orange bear: a rectangular canvas is its head, ears stick out from above, there are eyes and a smile, and the picture itself is soft. And here is the installation: an orange hare conquers a mountain of black Suprematist cubes. Nearby you can find a canvas depicting a starry sky, above which a soft toy floats. It seems that the artist began his path to the stars even then, in order to now transfer his creative games to the interplanetary scale.