Parlament Lights 2005

Editor: Here we have Arsen Savadov's "Parlament Lights" from 2005. It looks like a combination of photography and oil paint, maybe even a print. I’m struck by how the portraits seem both familiar and distant. How do you interpret this work? Curator: This work is steeped in the power of the gaze. Notice the faces. One looks directly out, engaging the viewer, while the other is in profile, seemingly lost in thought, or looking toward the future. The artist is evoking specific symbolic weight, don’t you think? Perhaps a cultural memory, a commentary on visibility and perspective within power structures? Editor: So, you are suggesting that the artist is contrasting these two views in some way. Could that mean that the woman, with the frontal gaze, represents the “present” while the man looking to the right symbolizes aspiration? Or is it that the artist is creating tension, making the viewer question the relationship of those gazes and states of mind? Curator: Precisely! Visual cues can speak volumes. But let's think beyond the surface. These faces could function as archetypes – perhaps reflecting on tradition and transition, or, potentially, even conflicting national identities, which resonate throughout Savadov’s broader body of work, often critiquing post-Soviet realities. The figures and the grainy style feel so...staged. Editor: I see what you mean about the tension and the identities. Thanks, now it definitely opens up more interpretations to me than before. Curator: It is fascinating how symbols carry and shift meaning through time, isn’t it?