Personal collage series · Tributes to art & artists
ANIMAL JAZZ
I stopped choosing between depth and humour.
WHY ANIMAL JAZZ
I used to think a real artist had to be serious — and suffer a little. Then I realised I was leaving out a huge part of my own personality.
Animal Jazz began when I stopped choosing between depth and humour. Each animal is a tribute to an artist, an artistic movement or a visual tradition.
THE CAT & THE SHEEP
The cat is a homage to Suprematism, built around simple geometric shapes and colour.
The sheep pay tribute to vintage photography, borrowing the look of an old group portrait.
THE ZEBRA: CUBISM
The zebra is a tribute to Cubism. Its body is taken apart and rebuilt from fragments. The animation shows how those pieces come together.
THE ROOSTER’S HANDS
A painting by Gustav Klimt stayed with me for years. Everyone remembers the gold. I remembered the hands: a calm face, and fingers that seemed to reveal the anxiety the sitter was trying to hide.
So I gave those hands to a rooster and dressed him in a Victorian gown. The pose suggests propriety and self-control, but the strange hands quietly undermine it. Human nature refuses to fit neatly into the rules.
I no longer think artists have to be serious. They can be funny — as long as there is something more behind the joke.
Concept · Collage · Animation — Vera Volodina