Ksenia Rybka
Information, art and beyond
Trying to escape, Ksenia Rybka.
From August 8 to 13, the Phoenix Art Space in Brighton, UK, hosted the “Information" exhibition. The exhibition featured photographs, collages, illustrations, and digital paintings by 10 contemporary artists. All the works were devoted to the understanding and research of the concept of information, the modern so-called information age, the relationship of man and society with information, and so on. This very broad and certainly painful topic for our hyperinformation-saturated time may seem rustic or even banal, but in fact, the last exhibition turned out to be an impressive collection of 10 different approaches to this topic. This is certainly one of the most successful and holistic British exhibitions in recent times, because the exhibition presents a consistent and clear statement of a group of socially critical artists, where each voice has a difference and value, but the abundance of voices does not become a chaotic polyphony.
The diptych "Dumskrolling" (digital photo collage) by Anna Fedotova is a visualization of the split perception of information by an obsessive subject. In our post-pandemic time filled with crises and uncertainty about the future, it would seem that any public event can become a trigger for obsessive dumscrolling. Anna deliberately multiplies the heroine of her photographs endlessly, as if echoing the process of constantly multiplying the reasons to follow the news and events that we cannot influence without restraint. The irony and the inner plot of this diptych lie in the fact that in reality (according to the author's concept), there is no increase in information. By splitting ourselves into many faces, we absorb the same dose of information.
Ksenia Rybka reflects on the themes of disinformation and propaganda. She conveys these ideas through the creation of a personalized image of propaganda, using a large silver papier-mâché head. This metaphor is particularly powerful, as we witness its unveiling through a series of interactions between propaganda and a girl who becomes its victim. These interactions highlight how deeply propaganda, as a form of information dominance, permeates human daily life. The girl and the propaganda figuratively walk hand in hand, share moments lying in each other's lap, play tag, and spend time together. As the story progresses, propaganda begins to manipulate the girl, much like a puppeteer controls puppets. Fortunately, the story has a happy ending, demonstrating that propaganda can indeed be overcome.
"Dual Perspectives" by Anastasiia Kozlova is a very witty analysis of the urban environment, the information saturation of which, in the perception of city residents, is reduced to simple commands and mottos in their simplicity, devoid of any meaning. This is certainly one of the tasks of capitalism to make a reflex out of the message, a call for simple and immediate action, but nevertheless, in the picture of Kozlova, the male character looks at his tablet, and we do not see what is depicted on the screen there. The dystopianness of reality is drowned in our desire to settle into any informational situation.
The "Informeat" triptych by Natallia Tsarkevich resembles a photo documentation of some street performative action. The character of these works seems to be a two-faced personification of human agency in the deployment of a propaganda machine — an anonymous consumer of this type of information and a secret agent for its production. This subject is both dangerous and bound, faceless and bright, ridiculous and misunderstood. Anastasia Andreeva philosophizes about information through black-and-white images of roses inextricably intertwined with chargers, device plugs, and dangling braided cable channels. Here, information is something emerging between the everyday experience of charging and discharging gadgets, breaking chargers, and using mobile Internet or Wi-Fi networks. In a sense, these are gaps in life, information about which is constantly located in certain liminal zones, which we periodically consciously erase from our experience of experiencing everyday life.
Inga Makeyeva reveals her conceptual approach to understanding the concept of information through a powerful and somewhat frightening darkened image of a person without personality traits captured by a camera somewhere in the middle of a deserted metropolis devoid of any human proportionality and readiness for empathic information exchange. This is a somewhat harsh, but at the same time realistic view that information (as a resource and a possibility of survival) is still a privilege and an object of endless struggle for for those who are not allowed to possess it.
"Informational Harmony" by Ekaterina Modina is one of the most seemingly harmonious and contradictory works of this exhibition. The photo shows a conventionally beautiful girl surrounded by advertising screens. The color scheme is gentle, not screaming. The girl is relaxed and pretty in life. And this is where the question arises: what kind of harmony is being discussed here? How about a single case of conflict-free survival in a hostile urban environment? Or about the absence of contradictions between man and reality. This is an amazing work in its impact, which asks more questions than answers. Surreal fluid digital works by Eduard Fadiushin convey to us images of other worlds, which we could call semiotic worlds, based on scraps of our torn information about the world, reality, and ourselves. Dreamy hallucinogenic constructions, despite their grandiosity, consist of information patterns from our everyday lives that have passed through the deforming filter of anxious consciousness.
"Kindergarten" by Roman Naveskin is a very bright and full-color image of the fatigue of absorbing the political agenda. Two almost identical politicians, differing only in the colors of their hair and costumes, shout at each other against the background of the full color of life. This is a very gentle and touching work to reduce the real value of the informational influence emanating from such people. After all, they are smaller than a rose flower, which rarely grows taller than the average person's chest. Made in thick, dark purple and gray tones, Enari Kate's work depicts the top of a person looking at something vaguely resembling a screen or monitor. This work is at the same time a psychological representation of the inner feeling of blurring the boundaries between things and an outside view of the process of passive absorption of information. A considerable amount of bitter humor is also hidden in this work: the open eye of the violet beholder, invisible to the viewer, looks at the black-and-white eye of the monitor through the blurred textures of reality. Isn't it funny?
The exhibition "Information" is an interesting range of ethical and artistic statements that certainly expand the boundaries of the social and aesthetic functions of contemporary art. But nevertheless, this exhibition not only asks questions, teaches us, and makes us more conscious; it also gives us amazing aesthetic experiences.
About:
Ksenia Rybka (b. 1990, Russia) is a fine art photographer based in London, UK. She creates complex interdisciplinary worlds where their photographs, personal histories, and public intentions are intricately intertwined within the framework of a unique artistic practise.
Website: kseniarybka.com
Brush Bio: www.brush.bio/kseniarybka
