Konstantin Kartashevsky
Spheres and Reflections

Anyone encountering Konstantin Kartashevsky’s artworks should be mindful of the laws of both physics and aesthetics in their mutual relation. One logical extension of Albert Einstein’s relativity theory was the concept of four-dimensional spacetime wherein the three spatial dimensions of length, width, and height combine with time to form a single continuum.

Kartashevsky’s exhibition transports one into a world in which everything depends on the point of view. His sculptures appear by turn flat and three-dimensional, split into fragments or reveal unexpected sides caused by reflections and lighting. These artworks play with our perception, prompting us to consider how the world around us works and just how often our opinion is conditioned by the focus of our attention. Kartashevsky encourages the audience to question their worldview and try looking at familiar things from different angles.

Konstantin is an experimenting artist, treating his practice as a cognitive tool in exploring the omnipresent polyphony of the world around us. Viewing three-dimensionality as a perceptive trap, he claims that any flat surface offers a way to tap into a multidimensional reality accommodating both the notion of time and the sense of gravitation.

It can be argued that Konstantin Kartashevsky’s method consists in deliberately factoring himself out of his creations. His sculptures are invariably stylistically diverse as they are never a case of egocentric self-expression: instead, we are faced with philosophical reflections with elements of relativity theory. According to the artist, the best way to understand his works is to absorb them for a while, getting lost in contemplation and for a brief instant losing the sense of time and gravity.