Kharkiv School of Photography: Soviet Censorship to New Aesthetics:
Part 3 - Contemporary Photographers Exhibition 2
© BOBA Group
BOBA Group
The BOBA Group is a duo formed in 2012 by the family couple of Julia Drozdek (b. 1978) and Vasilisa Nezabarom (b. 1975). They work in photography and art performance.
In their black-and white 2012 Furtiture from Gadyach series of staged images the BOBA Group follows a well-established Kharkiv School trend. Naked artist posing in front of his/her own camera as a way of telling a personal story is an approach used by Boris Mikhailov (I am not I, 1992 , Exhibition 2) and Sergei Solonsky (Naked Selfies, 1991 - 1995, Exhibition 2). Drozdek and Nezabarom tell their story among pieces of antique 1950s furniture salvaged from one of the spouses’ grandma’s abandoned home in a town of Gadyach.
The Voyenved project (2012) is based of found material, namely, a box with 60 mm negative film frames found in a deserted cantonment called “Voyenved” (the abbreviated Russian for “military department”) not far from their Kharkiv home. Half-destroyed negatives portraying decorated military men, most likely shot for a honor roll appearance, were reproduced with added dry floral fragments and insects to become what looks like a ghost portrait gallery of the Soviet era heroes.
(See Eugeny Pavlov's Total Photography project in Exhibition 2)
View Portfolio: Gadyach Furniture
We welcome your comments. VASA Exhibitions are the result of various curators, artist, and photographers.