descent

Normally I would not start writing a new painting until I had completely cleared my thoughts about the previous one, so as not to self-copy. But this time the work on Portal so fascinated me that the remaining fervor would be enough to create 10 more paintings. The task was set to depict the space of the underworld as effectively, complexly and convincingly as possible. Having studied many works of other masters and their vision of hell, I realized that all of them used specific images taken from already existing in various cultures. This concreteness deprived the viewer of the opportunity to participate in the creation of the images with the help of their imagination.

This painting marked the beginning of a series of works in the style of deep associativism, which was later renamed to elaborate "pereidolia" (a type of visual illusion formed by looking at an image).

One of the inspirations for this style came from defective film photographs in which one frame was layered on top of another. The presence of multiple images in a single shot prompted the experimentation with multiple layering. As a result, there were formed shapes that had no clear outlines, at a closer look at which and the game with the change of focus of the eye, it was possible to recognize certain images, which in the future were to be linked into a coherent plot.

The very idea of complicating associativism, which was already not easy to perceive, was born in the course of my observations of gallery visitors.

The fact that the viewer would dignify with a few seconds of his attention paintings that took many years to create was very upsetting to me. Analyzing this unfortunate phenomenon, I came to a quite logical conclusion: observing an image where everything is obvious and there is no mystery, the viewer's imagination did not get involved in the work and feeling bored pushed him to move on to other paintings. In a word, the author, who creates pictures with obvious content, deprives the viewer of the joy of experiencing the flight of fancy.

The monochrome and fiery descent is a representation of my vision of the underworld, revealed to the protagonist, a man in a white shirt, descending the stairs into the abyss of hell.

Year completed: 2022

Dimensions: 140*100

Medium / materials: Canvas / acryl

Name: Vlad blastov

Fragment 1. The soul of the dead protagonist - a man in a white shirt, descending the stairs down to the underworld

Fragment 2. Dark queen

Fragment 3. Servant of the underworld

Fragment 4. King

Fragment 5. Priest

Fragment 6. Mythological creature with broken face and raccoon

Fragment 7. Servant of the underworld

Fragment 8. The dark monk throws the headless body of a sinner into the abyss

Fragment 9. Hellish creature

Fragment 10. A demon holding a knife to his own throat and calling for suicide