Donbass Chocolate 1997

Arsen Savadov made this photograph, "Donbass Chocolate," and right away, I’m thinking about layers. I imagine Savadov in a dark space, wrestling with how to turn coal dust and tulle into an image. The bare-chested miners juxtaposed with the delicate tutus creates this visual friction—a kind of beautiful tension. What does it mean to re-contextualize an industry like mining with something as traditionally feminine as ballet? It's as if Savadov is saying that labor and grace aren't so different, they can co-exist, even in the deepest, darkest places. It reminds me of a few paintings where I tried to combine hard geometry with soft, organic shapes, trying to find a balance, an understanding of how things that seem opposite can actually complement each other. Artists are constantly in conversation with each other, even across different mediums. We are constantly thinking about how to make the familiar strange, and how to find beauty in the unexpected.