Secret weapon 2019

Editor: So, here we have Andrey Remnev's "Secret Weapon" from 2019, created with oil paint. It strikes me as incredibly unique; the portrait’s stillness is unnerving, but her dress is so bizarre. What do you make of it? Curator: Looking at Remnev’s choice of oil paints, consider their historical baggage. Oil paints are associated with wealth, the ability to commission portraits; it’s a marker of status. The materiality of the oil, layered painstakingly to achieve this smooth, almost unreal finish, speaks to a meticulous labor. What’s interesting is how he then disrupts that refined tradition. Editor: Disrupts it how? Curator: By adorning her dress with what seem like miniature versions of herself, wings sprouting from their backs! This disrupts the very idea of the singular portrait. We are dealing with representation, of course, but there are multiple figurations of herself embedded onto the material. That gilded yellow garment…it's as though it's almost manufactured, more like a constructed object. What about the single match held in her hand? Does that speak to anything? Editor: Possibly that it is about the start of something - igniting, revealing something. So you see the angel figures more as part of a decorative piece, disrupting the classical portraiture, in order to expose something new in representation, and labour? Curator: Exactly! The labour isn’t just the artist's; it's implicated within the very subject of the painting. How she herself becomes this crafted object, almost a product. Editor: I see your point! Thinking about it in terms of the painting process and the choices made in the materiality definitely deepens my understanding of the 'secret weapon' she embodies. Curator: Yes, by looking at the process of material construction, Remnev's intent becomes clear.