Sergei Konopelko's creative work is too complex. It is not a mistake when I say «too» complex. Art critics often say «very complex», and then describe the whole creative work of an artist in just a few words. This won’t work with Sergei K. You will fail to describe what he creates in several expressions. His paintings are evokingly rich, the same way rich and diverse as his artistic, scientific and professional life. It is necessary to choose some reference mark so that one doesn’t get lost in the variety of subjects, forms, plotlines, problems and questions that Sergei raises in his works. Let’s take the most remarkable feature. An artist is a LINE. We are used to the fact that LINE is always present in surrounding visual world – this is the line of horizon dividing the sky and the earth. Every painting starts with this line, every perspective is adjusted to it, all our dreams and desires are directed to it, we are trying to define and explain it by creating theories of The Golden Section etc. And besides this is also the line which divides our world into «earth» world and «heavenly» world. This line is not only common for us but also so essential for our lives, that when one tries to depict the world around us without this line, he will be immediately obliged to define the achieved result as «the final judgment» and look for something or someone to incorporate these two worlds at the same time retaining their duality. The best example illustrating this is the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in St Paul Cathedral in Rome. There exists one more field where we cannot do without this dividing line – this is linguistics. First Saint Augustine and then Ferdinand de Saussure speak about duality of symbol, about its division into «signifier» and «signified», its division into material phonemic carrier of symbol and its sense, its meaning to which it refers. Today it is impossible to imagine humanitarian knowledge without this division, and in that respect Sergei’s paintings are sophisticatedly intelligent. What is Sergei doing with this line? He shifts it down. He moves horizon lower than habitual level of division of sky and earth. His LINE divides the world of wild nature and the dead world. The sky and everything that exists on earth, what one can see, become one whole and are separated by the LINE from usually invisible underground world. A lot of interpretations can be offered here: it can be mortal fate of a human being, wretchedness of our lives in the aspect of capitalist world, senselessness of our existence and prediction of our future as Morlocks of Herbert Wells, etc, etc. For us it is important to state that shifting down the LINE is in fact interpretation of our civilization, interpretation which makes Sergei’s subtle beautiful figurative paintings actual modern art. This interpretation reduces «signifier» into the world of the dead, the «signifier» today is dead, profoundly material, nominalistic. Metaphor died after the Spirit. There does not exist beauty of the «signifier» - not surprising that modern art denies beauty. Neologism does not create any more, does not create place for the individual. Neo-semanteme is in the agenda of today. Neo-semanteme does not mean new sense, it acts more like a crutch for the individual traumatised by the abundance of the market and incapable to find any sense of his existence. The individual turns to be separated from his sense not by one but by two LINES. The line of separation of the «signifier» and «signified» becomes «double white line», which does not leave the individual any hope to cross it and get to the sense of his existence. At school especially during the period of domination of communist religion teachers liked to ask «What does this creative work teach you?» Let’s stay within childhood traditions and habits of an artist and ask «What is he talking about?» «What does he offer us?» A little correction – not us, not you. This is too narrow for our artist.

Sergei talks to the Other, to the World, to Civilization. And in his message he suggests that the Other turns through the double white line!

Mikhail Sobolev

Rome – St. Petersburg, 2016