Vyacheslav (Yuri) Useinov

Property of the artist

Tashkent, 7th International Biennial of Contemporary Art, 2013

Uzbek artist Vyacheslav Useinov conceived conceptual art as having multifaceted intellectual possibilities. His oeuvre is mainly aimed at searching for innovative ideas and the freedom and transformation of thought itself. Although working in a variety media, from painting to installation, Useinov’s always remains dedicated to the conceptual in his art. In this context the artist attempts to reconcile image and content, art and non-art, categories of the absurd and the profane, narcissistic creation and the actuality of social problems. 

Following an emotional reaction to a given situation, Useinov attempts to reflect the image, taking contemporary Uzbek art as the reference point for his subjecte matter. Useinov is interested in post-modernism in its national variations and the plastic forms to which it lends itself.

Having renounced painting as an insufficient medium for comprehending the contemporary environment, the artist turned to more abstract forms of expression. This led him to work with textiles, in particular a technique known as 'Chi', named after a plant found in Central Asian steppes. In the present lot, the artist replaces chi stems with pine rods which he wraps into silk thread of contrasting colour to create a decorative ethnic ornament. An irrational composition is constructed through the varying modulations of colour  that come together to create the fleeting motive of a female tubuteika^[i] from Margilan^[ii].

An object created in this technique is firmly grounded in the new visual code of the twenty year long history of the new Central Asian republics that stretch from the uninhabited steppes to the plowed lands of the Fergana Valley, where the artist was born. Useinov re-focuses the geometry of Op Art, synthesising it with cultures of nomadic and settled peoples and evoking their Eastern temperament within the complicated Post-Soviet era.

In the last few decades, the artist has witnessed a complex social collapse. Nevertheless, he always managed to go against the current and develop an individual artistic practice. The parallel experience of reality during these times of change is reflected in his recent production, which consists of a series of works made with gobelen and chi techniques. As evident in the present lot, these works are locked into the ornamental system  of  geometric forms of a “Girikh”^[iii], a symbol of creation of the world.  This series of works was presented as a united project at the 17th Tashkent International Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2013, where Useinov was awarded the Grand Prix.

Catalogue note written by Gayane Umerova, Senior Curator of Art Gallery of Uzbekistan. 

^[i] Tubuteika is a Central Asian colourful head-piece and an integral part of Uzbek traditional costume.

^[ii] Margilan is located in the South- East of Fergana Valley along one of the main routes of the Great SIlk Road of II-I century B.C.

^[iii] A complex knotted ornament in Islamic crafts created by multiple layering of geometric figures.