Drawn to Film : Olexander Wlasenko

30 November - 31 December 2021
Works
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Stair Well, 2016
    Olexander Wlasenko, Stair Well, 2016
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Almanacco Topolino, 2018
    Olexander Wlasenko, Almanacco Topolino, 2018
  • Olexander Wlasenko, City Limits, 2016
    Olexander Wlasenko, City Limits, 2016
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Colosseum, 2020
    Olexander Wlasenko, Colosseum, 2020
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Following Metropolis, 2018
    Olexander Wlasenko, Following Metropolis, 2018
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Motion, 2013
    Olexander Wlasenko, Motion, 2013
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Paragina, 2015
    Olexander Wlasenko, Paragina, 2015
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Posters, 2014
    Olexander Wlasenko, Posters, 2014
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Smoking Girl, 2018
    Olexander Wlasenko, Smoking Girl, 2018
  • Olexander Wlasenko, When our souls dream, 2021
    Olexander Wlasenko, When our souls dream, 2021
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Steps, 2016
    Olexander Wlasenko, Steps, 2016
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Spools, 2021
    Olexander Wlasenko, Spools, 2021
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Slow Dance, 2014
    Olexander Wlasenko, Slow Dance, 2014
  • Olexander Wlasenko, Man, Woman & Child, 2019
    Olexander Wlasenko, Man, Woman & Child, 2019
Overview

I use only one tool--my index finger. I manually rub the pigment into the surface of the paper. This technique gives the most dexterity and somehow the warmth of the hand transfers to each drawing.

Inspiration is concealed in the pages of history or reels of film. The images I draw from surface from the vast well-spring of historical sources. These can be vintage visual documents such as books, archives or old movies. This fascination with cinema stems from my upbringing.

My studio production focuses on a personal and investigative discourse surrounding drawing’s relationship to lens based media (i.e. photography, cinema) in modern culture. The images I choose to work with trigger involuntary and perhaps atavistic memories. In relation to this, I perceive the photos and films I draw from as touchstones for retrieving a dislocated cultural memory. And yet they are not my memories, and to some degree, nor are they vehicles of my “culture”. They are one step, one generation, removed. In this regard, they act as metaphors for displacement.