Tranquil 2020

Curator: Ah, "Tranquil" by Stepan Ryabchenko, created in 2020. I’m particularly drawn to the smooth, almost liquid forms that make up the composition. Editor: The word "Tranquil" certainly fits. Looking at it, I immediately think of a dreamscape, perhaps floating in some sort of frozen-over oasis. The colour palette is just dreamy. Curator: Absolutely, there's a real sense of peace. It’s quite clever how Ryabchenko combines these seemingly geometric forms, like something out of a sci-fi novel, yet they somehow evoke something organic. The texture, so shiny, really draws you in, almost reflecting a new reality onto itself. Editor: It reminds me of early digital art when artists first started exploring what could be created with computers. There’s that utopian idealism, suggesting a world purified, made serene by technology. Yet, I wonder, what is that tranquility built on? Is it accessible to everyone, or just a select few in a futuristic, perhaps dystopian society? Curator: That's interesting. I see less dystopia and more… well, possibility. It is also interesting, that it's a digital work posing as sculpture, an odd blurring of form in itself. Each of the forms seem to suggest motion despite its stillness, don't you think? Like captured moments. Editor: Motion definitely arrested! The almost ethereal colours against those solid shapes create a compelling tension. The way these ambiguous shapes sit upon what could either be sand or a pool, also blurs the boundaries between material realities and artificial worlds. It poses important questions about the role technology has in sculpting our environments, and whether or not, it actually serves to bring "Tranquility" or alienates us from it. Curator: Indeed. "Tranquil," in its strange and beautiful way, gets me pondering those unanswerable questions, floating about like a sky orb, lost and alone, asking the age old, what is form? Editor: Right? I see how it can also suggest the isolation that we encounter with hyper-tech, despite the apparent tranquility it tries to offer us. This piece invites viewers to contemplate technology’s multifaceted role, the very essence of existence, and where humanity will navigate those troubled waters of "progress."