Flesh metamorphoses

           Photography is the combination of technique and subject. The author is conscious about the technique - his professional skills while the subject is often a surprise for the artist, exsists beyond his comprehension and is dominated by associations of every spectator.

         The project by Vladimir Karchin is a kind of a statement and what is essential about it is neither watching, nor fixing the model but rigid provocation. Here one can find quotations from ever notorious body imaging and hints for participating in investigation of various perversions, which appear so amazing for artists’ imagination. The subject that seems trivial in reality is far from a retort about some famous horror film and is exactly a projection of zen koan, that means to be deciphered.

        The combination of symbolic actions embodied by the photographer appears as a reincarnation – the metamorphoses of body. The  performance includes living flesh (the body), dead flesh (the skull – the final stage of exsistance of organic substance) and artificial (goffered hose – snake). Temptation, attempt to connect incompatible things, inevitable conflict and finally – dialogue-reconciliation. Paradoxical prompting gestures that provide comprehending of the crux of the phenomenon are circled and can be read from any point. Besides the second part of the project is the handmade sign, proving the life-giving power of vortex and any motion.

Leonid Lerner

Vladimir Karchin

2001, computer print on canvas, lacquer