AES+F

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

St. Petersburg, State Russian Museum, AES-AES+F, 2007

AES-AES+F, St. Petersburg: Palace Editions, 2007, pp. 408-417

Digital print laid down on canvas. Some very light surface stains and a couple of spots around outer edges of canvas. Minor paint loss to lower right corner of both panels. Minor scratch to left edge of left most panel. Overall in excellent condition and may be hung as is.
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For the past twenty years the artistic collective AES has interrogated the boundaries of contemporary art. The projects of AES (1987-95), and, later, AES+F, as the group has been known since 1995, have incorporated a wide range of media, involving a plethora of cutting-edge photographic, cinematographic, computer-related, and sculptural technologies. The group's name is an acronym of the surnames of its artists: Tatyana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich, Evgeny Svyatsky, and Vladimir Fridkes.

Arzamasova studied at Moscow's Architectural Institute, and then went on to explore the possibilities of conceptual architecture. Evzovich also studied at the Architectural Institute, and then gained experience as an art director of animation films and a director of puppet animation films. A graduate of the University of Printing Arts in Moscow, Svyatsky worked in book and advertising design, as well as poster and graphic art. Fridkes built a solid reputation as a photographer for international fashion magazines. The artists' individual skills and experiences are reflected in the multifaceted projects on which they have collaborated. For many of AES/AES+F's projects, each member takes on the role of script writer, director, cinematographer, or set designer.

The present work belongs to the epic cycle Last Riot. It features underage models engaged in an endless virtual battle in which everyone is at war with each other and with themselves, and where there is no distinction between victim and aggressor, male and female. As the artists have written, in their works "a glossy surface often conceals an ugly meaning. Breathtakingly beautifully photographed war stories mask a reality of blood, sand and mud. Those complex relationships come from the Baroque period."

This lot is an example of the technical perfection central to AES+F's work in digital collage. The group's working method involves photographing the main elements of a piece—the landscape and the child models, who have been of various nationalities—and then digitally assembling the composition and introducing graphically-designed elements such as futuristic fortifications and exotic buildings. AES+F have explained that they photographed the children individually before assembling the images into groups in order to "achieve the effect of alienation, as though each character was imprisoned in his own invisible capsule." The artists have likened their creative practice to that of the Old Masters, who would paint figures, landscapes, and other surroundings and details separately and then transfer all the elements to a single composition on canvas. For this series, the child models were photographed holding cardboard tubes, which were later replaced with virtual weapons.