“Volodymyr Tsisaryk, 1978, is a Ukrainian sculptor. He studied Monumental and Decorative Sculpture as academic disciplines and earned a Master’s degree with honors. In his sculptural practices, among other materials, he gives preference to bronze but also interacts confidently with aluminum, wood, and stone.”
The Ukrainian sculptor brings into his creations a desire for watching, an inner beauty that attracts all the eyes in a room – or even when stumbled upon online. This metallic magnetism can be understood better if we look at some of his creations, such as Sylph, Younger brother, Big brother, Power or Salamander Dream. Analysing the gaze (or the absence of gaze) we can see that a certain touch happens, as if the gaze of the statues penetrates our own beings or our contemplation. The sculptures build through this look a definite perimeter that makes us stop, cautious, as if something can put us in danger.
The Gaze and It’s Absence
A David like look can be found especially in the Big/Younger brother set, as seen in the photos. This reflects a certain trait that came down the history, a trait that still makes us curious: how can an inanimate object “look” back at us? Is our privacy invaded by some invisible gaze of what surrounds us? Is it enough for something to have the shape of an eye to posses the power of gaze, or is there an infinite pool of eyes everywhere?
Tsisaryk marks his bronze figures with an intensive looking, that haunts and follows you long time after you saw the art pieces.
There is also another type of this self-reflexive look, the one that works in absentia. In Power or Salamander Dream the eyes are blocked either totally or partially, this blocking not being restrictive to the power they manifest. The gaze may be eclipsed, but there is a meta-effect that drags our own attention towards the lack of vision of both the sculptures.
Volodymyr Tsisaryk creates this effect in and with the materials he uses by combining precision of form and shape with the power of uncanny and unfinished. This mix gives birth to a plethora of inner reactions, from amazement to curiosity, from an inspiring aura to a feeling of anxiety.
Drawing a conclusion looking at Tsisaryk creations we can easily say that his art cannot pass unnoticed. The way in which he carefully and with great precision shapes the figures so they encompass both grace and heaviness give us the feeling of being complete.
Moreover, Volodymyr Tsisaryk manages to bring forth a gaze that puts a gravity center into his artwork – center from which the pieces themselves go and strike the admirers back with powerful looks. This effect crosses his works and brings forth a unique perspective that he masters.
What is Tsisaryk about? He’s about finding a way to look at and from an object in multiple ways, all of these looks leaving traces that can be almost felt as if they were physically present.
Maybe is our own consciousness looking back at us, objectifying the vessel in which it lies daily.
