Olga Chernysheva, 'Protected by', 2015

Series of 25 drawings, Level 1, Building C and D

The charcoal drawings by Olga Chernysheva on display in Building C and D of the Erste Campus show human figures who all have in common their isolation. But despite this solitary quality, it is not about anything unique; without a doubt, that which is portrayed here is always merely exemplary. This is in part due to the chosen medium of the charcoal drawing, a sketch-like technique that searches more for the generally valid than for the individually special, and that—even more importantly—seeks to achieve recognition when viewed. Recognition that is only possible if something existential is being touched upon that is unfamiliar to nobody, even to those who may have never been forced to flee or spend a night freezing on a park bench. Accordingly, one recognizes in these drawings the feeling of being thrown into a life whose shape and fates can be influenced only in a limited way by the individual. Olga Chernysheva gave her drawings titles, writing them on small strips of paper and affixing these to the individual pages. She began all of these titles with the words “Protected by,” to which she appended conditions, objects, or actions from which, in the depicted moments from life, a feeling of security could be derived. The illusionary quality of these attributions and their obvious futility reinforce the impression of vulnerability and thus ask as to every society’s social obligations to the individual. The sketch-like impression made by these depictions, along with the necessarily incomplete quality of a society unable to adequately protect all of its members, is reinforced by Olga Chernysheva’s decision to install her drawings for the Erste Campus on bare, unplastered walls. 

Olga Chernysheva, born in 1962, lives and works in Moscow. The focus of Olga Chernysheva’s work is on human beings caught up in the political and economic upheavals of their times. Her drawings, watercolors, videos, photographs, and paintings adhere to the 19^th century and Russian avant-garde tradition of critical social realism. They tell of lives defeated by circumstances in societies that have become fractured, as her mode of depicting of solitary beings make painfully visible. Alongside numerous participations in biennial events, such as the 49th and 56th Venice Biennales, the Moscow Biennale, the 6th Berlin Biennale and the Biennale of Sydney, she has also shown her works in important international exhibitions at venues including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, BAK in Utrecht, London’s White Space, and the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg.

Text: Kathrin Rhomberg & Pierre Bal-Blanc