Haring mouse 2021

Sergey Piskunov made this mouse, it seems, without a date. The first thing that grabs you is this interplay between flat pattern and three-dimensional form. Look closely, and you'll see how the black and white drawings are not just on the surface, but seem embedded within the sculpture, giving it depth and texture. I’m thinking of graffiti art and Piskunov seems to use it to give this figure a kind of skin. The heavy dark pigment that forms the cartoonish outline really pops, and the way they build up a network over the figure creates a unique visual experience, a combination of hard edge and organic flow. It's like Piskunov is having a conversation with someone like Keith Haring, but instead of a flat wall, he’s working with a 3D form, which twists and turns the marks across a solid object. Art is always this ongoing dialogue, isn't it, a mash-up of ideas where nothing is ever really fixed?