Stanislav Volyazlovsky

Stanislav Volyazlovsky’s (b.1971) work reflects his interest in sub rather than popular culture. Combining an original graphic sensibility with a mischievously irreverent approach to society, the artist has produced a variety of textile-based pieces that serve as vehicles for a body of work he has poetically termed “Chanson Art”. This sing-song mélange of images derives from the eclectic worlds of prison tattoos, TV commercials, regular fiction, crime and pornography. Translated into wall hangings and stuffed pillows stained in “chifir” (a tea so strong it is infamous among prisoners for its almost hallucinogenic properties), Volyazlovsky’s work addresses the impact of the onslaught of overcrowded imagery that assaults our senses and invades our thinking on a daily basis. In Volyazlovsky’s hands, Chanson Art becomes a kind of therapy, an exercise in purging and overcoming.