Commedia dell'Arte in Crimea 2012

Arsen Savadov’s ‘Commedia dell'Arte in Crimea’ is a photograph, but it has the feeling of a painting, it’s so carefully composed and uses such a rich palette of colours. To me, it looks like Savadov is playing with this idea of artmaking as a process of building, layering, and transforming. The photograph is staged inside a library that acts as a theatrical space, with figures from the Commedia dell'Arte. The muscular forms painted in vibrant colours are especially striking. They appear to be floating or exploding, and they seem to carry the weight of the figures who are holding them. I keep coming back to one muscle in particular, leaning against the figure in harlequin costume. It’s painted with such detail, you can almost feel the texture of it. In many ways, the work recalls the surrealist photography of someone like Man Ray, whose work also played with the relationship between the body, the object, and the photographic image. Yet, Savadov pushes his photograph toward something different, more theatrical and more visceral. It invites us to rethink how we see the world through art.