ARTIST:

Irina Korina

Capital
Irina Korina
Chapel
Irina Korina
Chapel
Irina Korina
Capital
Irina Korina
Capital
Irina Korina
Capital
Irina Korina
Capital
Irina Korina
Capital
Irina Korina
Capital
Irina Korina
Capital
Irina Korina
Capital
Irina Korina
Capital
Irina Korina

At over 2 metres high, Irina Korina’s Capital (2012), a column-like ‘ruin’ composed of what looks like refuse material, stands as an ironic monument to contemporary culture. The sculpture is made up of ordinary thin plastic bags filled with discarded, donation clothing, tied up and hung flaccidly from the centre of a banged up corrugated metal pillar. It has been designed with a child-like imagination and simplicity – dumpsite art, made out of a top-heavy consumerism fallen by the wayside.

The work’s title seems just as uncomplicated and direct; it’s hard to ignore the obvious play it makes between the central Marxist work critiquing capitalism as an economic system and the term for the top element (Ionian, Doric, etc) of a column in classical architecture, here made out of waste. Capitalism, the sculpture seems to be suggesting, is no more than this: the redistribution of excess. Knowing the context in which Korina works, another meaning of ‘capital’ appears perhaps even more urgent – the general condition of post-Soviet, post-socialist utopian disarray in the city centres of Russia today.

Korina trained as a theatre designer and is known for creating enveloping room installations out of disposable, ordinary materials common to every Russian – a little like Ilya Kabakov’s Soviet interiors, but with a heavier dose of whimsy and kitsch. Previously, she’s used familiar cheap floral fabric, discarded furniture and magazines to create an unfamiliar materiality verging on the absurd, and to confront us with objects and spaces conjuring memories of a previous time. Behind its comical makeshift appearance, Capital stands as a totem to the everyday, leaving us to wonder the meaning of this traditional object reincarnated by Korina.

Text by Lupe Nùñez-Fernández

Camouflage
Irina Korina
Camouflage
Irina Korina
0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop

    Thank you for your enquiry!

    Your message was sent and one of our Admin team will respond as soon as possible.

    If you have an urgent question, please call our front desk on 020 7811 3070.

    For more information on how we store and use your data please view our privacy policy here. You can unsubscribe from our newsletters at any time by clicking on the links below the emails we send you.

    Essential Information Before Your Visit:
    Click Plan Your Visit for full information on upcoming closures.

    Register for email updates
    Be the first to hear about the latest Saatchi Gallery exhibitions, events, offers and news