White elephants 1991

Editor: This is Oleg Holosiy's "White Elephants" from 1991, a mixed-media painting that seems to depict a dreamlike landscape filled with pale elephants under a night sky. It evokes such a surreal and unsettling atmosphere. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Well, the “white elephant” itself carries potent symbolic weight. In some Eastern cultures, it represents rarity, sacredness, even royalty, but Western idioms suggest it's a burdensome, unwanted gift. Holosiy may be playing with these contrasting ideas. Editor: I never thought about that tension before. So, it’s not simply about elephants? Curator: The choice of elephants, traditionally associated with memory and wisdom, also asks us what cultural memories or burdens are present here. And the almost ghostly rendering invites thoughts of loss and forgotten histories. What kind of effect is that figure at the left of the image creating for you? Editor: I find them rather distant, like a removed observer looking at the Elephants who maybe representing forgotten memories. This artwork has some intense contrasts, both conceptually and in the dim shades it employs. I wonder, why Holosiy chose the elephant as a cultural vehicle? Curator: Holosiy, emerging from a Soviet context, may be using the elephants as symbols of something unwieldy or beautiful but ultimately a ‘gift’ with a complicated history for his own culture, maybe Ukrainian Identity after the fall of USSR. Editor: The symbolic richness here is extraordinary, making a deeper and complex reading for an almost monochrome painting. Thank you, that adds layers of meaning! Curator: Indeed, art often serves as a visual bridge to understanding cultural layers, prompting us to see with new eyes.