Unus Safardiar

Unus Safardiar, born in the former U.S.S.R, has been living and working in London since 1993. He studied at the Russian Academy of Art in St. Petersburg, and was awarded the Gold Medal and the Ilya Repin Prize during his time there. In 1997 Safardiar and his fellow artist Vitaly V created 10 vast sculptures out of 3 tons of food which had been prepared by 15 chefs from Westminster College. More recently the artist was joined by Sean Henry in the first exhibition of contemporary sculpture to be held in Regent’s Park in London. Safardiar’s monumental sculptures feature a variety of media, often incorporating transparent elements which offer the viewer new, unexpected perspectives and directly engages with the landscape around. The artist commented on the present work: ‘As a child I was very interested in looking at objects at very close proximity.  In order to discern them in this manner, I used lenses. I wanted to get to the bottom of their existence and try to understand their essence. From early childhood I perceived that our reality, everything that surrounds us is viewed through some sort of lens. All that we experience - our thoughts and feelings are an intricate pattern on the body of this lens.  Patterns are changed and transformed, depending on the angle from which we view them and our point of view. The Lens is in itself is a philosophical object - we use lenses when we need to look at distant and massive objects like stars, as well as the microscopically small - like the heart of the atom.  It helps us to get a clearer understanding of the world that we individually live in, the environment surrounding us and the universe that we observe from afar’.