Group exhibition Dog’s Life

Red October Gallery presents the “Dog’s Life” project by Alexander Brodsky, Semyon Faibisovich and Olga Chernyshova.

In the early 90-s many Russians used to leave their children in orphanages and beloved thoroughbred dogs in the streets.  Those dogs’ offspring that survived formed steadily specific and motley community of homeless creatures.

The idea of creating a series of works about their life – a kind of hymn to the dogs’ freedom – came to Semyon Faibisovich 6 years ago.  But while gathering the material and creating paintings, dogs vanished from the Moscow landscape. Dog-hunters – a new sort of beast-citizens – were the main reason for that. Compassionate people brought the rest of the dogs to the special shelters in the outskirts.   Thus the hymn of freedom turned into the requiem for victims of cruelty towards the animals.

In philosophical and allegorical installation by Alexander Brodsky the same theme of requiem is original, as the installation’s concept came to the artist after the dogs had already disappeared. It is a representation of abandoned canine concentration camp. There are no prisoners anymore – only their vestiges on the sand, which refer to the aesthetics of prehistoric art (cave paintings of animals killed by wild hunters).

On the contrary, the video installation by Olga Chernysheva is full of optimism. Several screens are broadcasting how thoroughbred well-groomed dogs with buckets in their mouths are performing in order to raise funds for their unfortunate brethren in shelters. Real buckets are placed nearby each screen, so that every visitor can make a donation. After exhibition is closed raised money will be transferred to the shelters. This way the artist calls upon to help homeless animals together.

One of the main ideas of this three-part project is to provoke a discussion about the lack of kindness and animals deprivation of normal life, or even just a life, because of human cruelty. This topic calls to another important problem – unhappy or tragic fate of orphan children.  All in all, the exhibition suggests thinking about this subject in a humanistic way, which is so unusual in modern world and contemporary art.

The exhibition is supported by non-profit organization “The Gift of Fate”. Part of the money raised during the show will be given to charity in order to develop special programs of helping and supporting the shelters for homeless animals.