Commedia dell'Arte in Crimea 2012

Arsen Savadov’s photograph captures figures from Commedia dell’Arte in Crimea, which is a collision of artifice, costume, and the everyday set against the lush backdrop of a natural landscape. I can only imagine what it must have been like to create a piece like this. The initial idea must have been the easy part but I can picture the artist working hard to bring it to life: the challenges of arranging the shoot, finding the right models, and the technical expertise required to bring it all together. It's one thing to visualize this scene but another thing entirely to make it appear so effortlessly real. The composition reminds me of the work of Jeff Wall, in the way that it is so deliberately staged and artificial. In turn, Wall was inspired by 19th-century painting and Savadov must also have been aware of this lineage, so it’s like he's contributing to this ongoing visual dialogue, remixing familiar tropes and genres into something new.