One Hour to Deadline

One Hour to Deadline project reflects the artist’s anxious state of being trapped in the grip of institutionalism. The video installation and sculptures became the author’s reaction to the next set deadline — anxiety, confusion, impotence gave rise to a form. The viewer in the center watches as the space fills with water, personifying the accumulating tension. The bright bursts interjected into the video and the final piercing emptiness do not bring relief, as the cycle repeats itself over and over again.

The installation was created for the hall of the ProArte Foundation, Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg.

Curator: Lizaveta Matveeva

This is the Labor, and the Labor is many things ^[1]

“The artist today is not only and not so much a manufacturer of art objects. It is also a manager, producer, PR specialist, salesperson, self-coordinator, working from deadline to deadline. The work of an artist, like any other creative or simply self-employed worker, is becoming more complex and multi-component, but even less stable. Increasingly, we are faced with the precarization of work – in order to provide for ourselves, we have to take on more projects, take on more responsibilities, which inevitably leads to burnout and a decrease in the quality of life. It is unfashionable to be inefficient and procrastinate – you need to constantly generate ideas and agree to all possible proposals. The environment does not like failures and demands more and more, but unfairly offers less and less. The artist finds himself caught in the vise of institutionalism, from which it is not easy to escape, especially at the initial stages of professional development.

Tanika’s video installation is a metaphorical embodiment of the unsettling state in which we introduce ourselves in the pursuit of efficiency. The line of water gradually rises, the calm, seemingly relaxing image is gaining intensity – shots of water are replaced by short dynamic videos, the sound builds up tension. The work was the author’s reaction to another set deadline – anxiety, confusion and impotence gave rise to a form. And the form, in turn, relays this excitement to the viewer and turns out to be a frame for institutional criticism”.

Lizaveta Matveeva

^[1] The title refers to the title of the 1994 exhibition by Belgian curator Bart de Baere This is the Show, and the Show is many things.

Technical description

A trapezoidal U-shaped structure made of plywood and timber, 450×225 cm in size. A solid wall faces those entering the hall looking like a black cube from the outside. A video is projected inside: the gradual filling of the space with water, shot down from time to time into frames-memories. There are several stone sculptures inside. The size of the largest is approximately 100x120x60 cm, there are small ones: 20x20x30 cm. Materials: foam, paper, primer, putty, acrylic, liquid transparent plastic. Outside, printed papers with quotes from the artist’s working correspondence are pasted on the walls of the room itself. The whole space is filled with sound, which amplifies the tension during the “flooding”.

Video duration: 4 min 20 sec