This concept has developed from my explorations into
cultural relativity and the construction of ideologies that I have been exposed
to in my Russian-American experience. My work is simply a compilation and
personal interpretation of the Collective and environment surrounding me. In
these propaganda posters, I am particularly looking at Russian constructivist
propaganda posters, imagery from contemporary green and equality movements, and
slogans from this imagery as well as from Christian and other religious
rhetoric. Another major inspiration is the work of Yegor Letov, the
controversial Siberian punk that is for many Russians an emblem of systematic
dissent and/or Soviet nostalgia and nationalism. One of my posters features a
direct quote from a Letov song, “Давайте
будем жить вперед!” (Let’s live forward!) Like Letov
and many artists before and after him, I am strategically appropriating iconic
visual strategies and slogans to create an obvious parallel between my ideology
and previous ideologies, to appeal to the sentiment of an audience that would
be familiar with such imagery and to expose these ideas to people who may not
know much about “the other side.”
My main poster, “Let’s
Live Forward,” borrows most heavily from the Constructivist aesthetic through
the use of collaged cutout black and white photographs of people and
positivistic industrial imagery, diagonal lines, powerful slogans, and a
saturated color palette of reds, yellows, and blacks. In the top left corner is
a fist and red star combination evokes typical communist propaganda images. This image relates to the body as politic in the way the image
of a human is used as a metaphor for the idea of moving forward and as a model
image for a viewer to find themselves in. The central figure embodies an
attitude in her chill but tensely composed posture and looking forward, as the
slogan declares, into the future. The pink sunglasses are the central symbol of
this composition. The phrase about looking at the world through rose-colored
glasses- existent similarly in both Russian and English- normally has a
lighthearted and often negative connotation of mindless bedazzlement or
ignorance of harsh reality. Always looking only at reality, though, soon brings
disillusionment and apathy. In order to move forward, one needs to imagine the
possibility of beauty in the future and then choose to move towards that
non-existent beauty, which we will never reach alive, but in our movement
towards it we will have made reality at least a little better for at least
someone. This is enough motivation though, because the other alternatives are
happy ignorance or wallowing in unhappy reality. Thus, the pink glasses are the
idealism that facilitates “forward” action.
