Satellite Voices

Moscow / Русский

Evgeny Dedov

February 10

The Last Pangaea from the dream and fantasy laden young Russian artist

• Text by Kemal Tarba

St. Petersburg-born Evgeny Dedov has gone a long way since his work was first exhibited at Winzavod’s START in 2009, a special project dedicated for the search of young artist talents. The 25-year-old is currently working on a new project entitled "Last Pangaea". The project will address the possible relationships between different species of the human race and beyond. Evgeny investigates the social space between different individuals, their dreams, fantasies, desires and the dialogue between the person and it's environment.

Satellite Voices: What is the most challenging part of being an artist today?
Evgeny Dedov: I think the most challenging part is the same as ever: what the artist really wants to create and portray. It is always difficult to apply to reality what you had in mind. Sometimes you see the idea in your mind and everything is cool. But when it is materialised, you see it is not what you wanted. Lack of skills and abilities reduces the chances to accomplish your ideas. In my case it’s painting. The constant practice of painting, predominates over the invention of the conceptions. I came up with an idea and the next step is to figure out how to make it visible for the viewer. It is how to detect and describe this idea on the canvas with conservative tools: color, stains, some texture, its surface.

SV: What was the last thing you created?
Evgeny Dedov: My latest project was called "Wonderful Life". It is not a series of paintings, as you might have thought. It's just a sense of the symbolic stories, faded pastel colors, a little scary, a little ironic images. A set of simple characters in some of the works: a boy, a flower, a fish, the sea, the sun... All works are about something obvious. But all these objects are somewhere far away. We are not talking about the image of life itself as such, but about life that once existed. It’s just a distant hint of it. This is a personal empathy with my sincerity.

SV: What’s your dream project?
Evgeny Dedov: I do not know. I never dreamed about a project. When you work on a project you always change something, waiting for a paint layer to dry... This is a long ongoing process that requires patience. I like to present all that I do in the form of stories that are connected. When I finished the series of works, it must necessarily respond in the sequel, the next project. So it is better not to dream but to continue the story.