Description

Igor OST
Wheat Field, 2022

woodcut, paper
98 × 150 cm

Artist's Quote:

This work was created by me in the summer of 2022 during an art residency in Montenegro, as part of a diptych alongside another piece of the same size depicting the sky. The diptych reflected the eternal dichotomy between earth and sky.

At the time, there was a flood of news about the destruction of grain fields in Ukraine, and I thought it served as a powerful metaphor for the invasion itself.

The diptych was titled “Banned in the Russian Federation”, a phrase that frequently appeared in official news and seemed to apply to everything surrounding a person — including the land and the sky.

After the edition of the prints was made, this very phrase was drilled directly into the printing plates. With the addition of built-in lighting, the plates themselves were turned into independent art objects and exhibited alongside the prints.

In this way, I was able to show the contrast between the natural state of things and the artificially imposed.