Good news for anyone interested in life in the Soviet Union during the Cold War or communism and world politics — the sculpture project “H-Hour” by artist Grisha Bruskin will be on display in the Katzen Arts Center through March 17.
Bruskin held a gallery talk to introduce the collection at its opening Jan. 26. Many of the sculptures on display are cracking and ruined by design, made to resemble the fallen pillars and statues of the Roman Empire.
In his introduction of the project, Bruskin said the Soviet Union was the “third Roman Empire,” with Moscow following Rome and Constantinople. These sculptures, then, are the ruins of that empire. They describe and depict life from this fallen state to show the world what it was like to live before the collapse of the USSR.
One gathering of sculptures in particular lends itself to this thought. There is a series of figures standing at attention, cracked and collapsing like the terra-cotta army of China. Bruskin said that he hopes his work will be an archaeological find to be placed in the museums of the future, in case “H-Hour” arrived and destroyed civilization on Earth.
The project is also focused on the concept of the enemy, a character that takes many forms in the sculptures. From the obvious political enemy of the state to the universal enemies of mankind such as death and time, Bruskin’s sculptures demonstrate the constant presence of the enemy felt during the Cold War.
The life reflected in the artwork is one of constant threat. The Soviet Union that inspired these works could not ignore the possibility of a devastating attack, and Bruskin recounted memories of posters seen around his school that inspired some of the works.
One striking pair of sculptures is called “Twins” and shows two men with symbols on their chests. The writing is in Russian, but Bruskin explained that the words were “eyes, skin, mouth and nose,” based on a public emergency-preparedness poster he remembered from growing up in Russia, meant to remind people what to protect in case of a chemical attack. This threat was so prevalent in the USSR that it’s easy to see the artist’s fascination with the enemy.
Many of the pieces in the collection address the topic of chemical warfare, brought to mind by the many figures in gas masks. This sort of constant danger is something hard to understand without living in the time of the Cold War, but Bruskin’s art has a simplicity about it that conveys his message clearly: that enemies and constant danger were always close at hand in the USSR.
The images in the “H-Hour” collection depict a life that is difficult to imagine, where the cross is as common a sight as the Kalashnikov, and gas masks are often ready and available. The everyday experiences that inspired this project are so different from those of Americans today that one could almost believe the civilization depicted really was ancient and alien.
But this is, in fact, recent history that involved the U.S. intimately. If the Cold War doesn’t seem like a conflict with serious impacts, go see this exhibit. It will change your mind.
thescene@theeagleonline.com
