The artist embroidered “Sleep paralysis” – MK

Vitaly Tyurlik created an action-packed horror film

Textiles close to horror, full of absurdity and surreal paradoxes. It was precisely these works that were shown at a personal exhibition at the Ruarts gallery by the young artist Vitaly Desyatnik, who performs under the pseudonym Tyurlik. “Nick” is not accidental – it refers to a series by the master of the “severe style” Geliy Korzhev, who in the dashing 1990s wrote a series of images of funny and frightening mutants, which he called turliks. Fantastic creatures become Vitaly’s heroes, but like the famous artist, this Kafka-esque saga has an optimistic message.

Current embroidery is increasingly becoming a trend, and Vitaly Tyurlik (born 1988) is one of the rising stars of this trend. Last year, he became a resident of Winzavod Open Studios and created an interesting series for the final exhibition, which was noticed by experts. After his first success, the artist bought himself a new sewing machine and continued his textile experiments, which resulted in the exhibition “Sleep Paralysis.”

Sleep paralysis is not just a metaphor, but a medical concept. This is the name given to the moment when the body switches off for a few seconds or minutes during sleep. Usually, blackout occurs just before waking up, so it is also called awakening cataplexy, and is not considered dangerous to health. But dreams seen before returning from that world to this one are usually remembered, unlike visions of deep sleep. This is exactly the kind of nightmare that the artist “paints” with threads.

Before us are scenes where giant mushrooms grow, where huge moths or fire-breathing dragons soar, where a black rooster the size of a house walks through the streets. Here you can also find humanoid turlik monsters – with bat wings, yellow eyes or the head of a dragon. Some stories contain text: “Everything is going to hell,” “It’s blowing me away,” or “These are just flowers.” Each caption illustrates the plot: the devils really scatter in different directions, a giant bloodworm carries away a boy in a red cap, and mutant flowers grow with redoubled force under the thunderous rumbles of the black sky. However, this whole surreal thing is not particularly frightening, sometimes it makes you smile, but it definitely has an adrenaline charge.

Humor is easily read in horror stories, for example, in the work where an elephant pours tea on a stunned man (under the scene there is a caption: “The same tea”). The subjects evoke associations simultaneously with Kafka and Kharms, Bruegel and Bosch. This is how the artist explores the borderline states of the unconscious, turning fears into impossible horror stories. But the viewer feels that this is just an absurd vision – as soon as he wakes up, he will melt. You can also pull the thread and unravel the fabric.

Sometimes, in order to awaken from a nightmare, you need to experience a shock, and then reality will seem better than before the dream, and phobias will seem like a dream. In a word, Vitaly Tyurlik has created a sharp metaphor on the tip of a needle, created in the author’s style, while fitting into the discourse set by the classics – from the masters of the Renaissance to one of the main representatives of the “severe style”.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29255 dated April 11, 2024

Newspaper headline:
The artist embroidered “Sleep paralysis”