Vita Buivid (Russia):

Rapid Eye Movement

“Ivan Shiskin’s Morning in a Pine Forest is an entire epoch, a cultural layer erected up to a kitsch level by Soviet light industry and souvenir manufacture. Practically every Soviet household owned a reproduction of Shishkin’s painting: some had it in a gold frame, others in the form of a casket, and there were also happy owners of a picture carpet that emphasised a special prosperity of the family. In Rapid Eye Movement the carpet hangs in a wood where it is used as a background for actions that interpret my dreams, raising Shishkin’s work from household kitsch to postmodern art.”

Vita Buivid is a Moscow-based photographer whose work particularly engages with the theme of kitsch. She has held numerous solo exhibitions across Russia, in the UK, Scandinavia, Europe and the US, and is represented in several international public and private collections.

Images © Vita Buivid.