From the series Total Photograph (1990-1994)
‘Total Photograph’ is a large set of ‘color’ photographs (really black-and-white, but embellished with conspicuous bright splotches) that are subject to an analysis that reveals their ‘true reality.’ The meta-technique of the handmade photograph was a free, uninhibited gesture, significant for the appearance of the ‘reality’ of photographs that capture daily life and being during the Soviet period.
Double perspective and the addition of the two, three, or more visual projections allow the photographer to remain apart from a negative, unacceptable image of reality. Pavlov began widely introducing painting into black-and-white photography. In relation to the original photographic image, it plays an atypical, destructive role here. This makes ‘Total Photograph’ similar to various ‘negative objects’ of contemporary art, of which the substance of destruction is an essential given. But these purely photographic losses were compensated by the parameters provided by painting.
Digging through photo archives from Soviet times, in ‘Total Photograph’ Pavlov reveals the mystical subtext of the duplicate Soviet reality, where scenes of ‘courts of comrades,’ party reports, or pioneer marches are reminiscent of scenes of the Last Supper, Judas’s betrayal, or Christ being beaten. We have the pioneer commander handing out weapons to children who, trained in militarism, became the generation that became the bulwark of war under the empire of evil heading by Moscow.
[ Text: Tetiana Iljushina-Pavlova ]
