Vadim Voinov

The Collection of Roman Tabakman

Alexander Borovsky (introduction), Most Cherez Stiks, St. Petersburg: DEAN Publishers, 1994
Irina Karasik and Alexander Borovsky, Iskhod veshchei, St. Petersburg: The State Russian Museum, 1997
Irina Karasik, ed., Vadim Voinov, St. Petersburg: DEAN Publishers, 2002

In 1979, Leningrad nonconformist artist Vadim Voinov began creating what he calls "function-collages." Combining diverse elements in evocative ways, these works incorporate discarded objects issued in large editions and containing little or no material value, such as old postcards and used tickets and receipts. As many of these items were produced in the Stalinist era, Voinov's collages reflect on the horrors of that infamous period, which saw Voinov's father arrested in 1949 amid the postwar purges. Other aspects of the artist's biography that have inflected Voinov's creative practice are his study of history at Leningrad University and his employment as a curator at the Museum of the History of Leningrad. Voinov's work at the museum included the examination of old buildings slated for demolition to decide whether the buildings contained anything of cultural value that would be worth preserving.

The people and events of Russia's twentieth-century history figure prominently in all of Voinov's assemblages, which elevate the outdated, obsolete objects incorporated within to the level of historical significance. The selection and arrangement of these objects depends on a theme, which is often formulated in the title of an individual work or an entire series.