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                                                                         RIMMA GERLOVINA

                                                                                THE CUBES                                                                       

                                                                                 © 2010, Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin

                                                                                                                  PART 5

In 1975, the small boxes grew into the Cubes-Environments, the series of the projects, in which the spectator is turned into a performer. Upon entering each of these objects with different settings, one unintentionally follows its scenario. These works syncretize elements of diverse genres, entwining environmental art with conceptualism, dramaturgy and polyphonic poetry. The Cubes-Environments are issued in the series of thirty-three booklets, each for a single project.

The series opens with the two-meter side Mirror Cube, 1975, all interior sides of which are made of mirrors. Upon entering that cube, the spectator finds himself in the focus of all its six mirrors, astonished by enormous multiplication of his own reflection. The immersion into the environment with reverberating self-image is accompanied with the repercussive quadraphonic sound. The polyphonic poem is recited slowly, similarly to echo by an announcer whose voice preferably would have hypnotic qualities. The text is recorded by means of superimposition, producing a multi-voiced resounding. Here, one experiences the effect of audible and visual synchronization of the echo and the infinite corridor of reflections of the listener. One intermediate strophe from that sound poem might give a sense of its dominant rhythm, the unison of "I am" and dispersion of all other meanings.  (Link to the original text)

          1^st voice: ............................................................................................................................................

          2^nd voice: ...........................................................................................................................................

          3^rd voice: I am continuation of life I am continuation of life I am continuation of life I am continuation of life

          4^th voice: I am pores I am ready I am here I am seeing   I am hearing    I am people I am sample I am number

          5^th voice: I am photo I am volt    I am veto I am hundred I am spectrum I am litre     I am meter   I am point

The life of an artist usually has many twists and turns; in a way, it is a happening in itself. From the point of view of an ordinary person, it looks rather like a "mishappening," just as it does in the series of Cube-Environments. In some sense, psychoanalytic projects contain elements of visual poetry and more importantly, they are written with a sense of irony. They translate certain grotesque situations into visual dramatizations, and they are not only idiosyncratic for people who have a creative vision, but also for those who "suffer" from extra keen observation and sensitivity. Among them, The Displacer (1975) is particularly significant. It demonstrates the paradigm of an objective process, a kind of deliverance from nature's constraints. It is conceived and played out by nature itself, wherein the personal ego is slowly processed by the power of the impersonal, similarly to a rough diamond getting a brilliant cut. In strictly conceptual form, it shows both the process and the outcome.

                                                                                    Companion

                                                                          Demonstration Cube

                                               Rimma Gerlovina with the cubes, 1976, Moscow.

Parallel to the Cube-Environments, different multi-cell objects were made at that time, such as, The Pyramid (1975), The Clock (1975), Rabinovich (1975), An Ideal Man (1976), Paradise-Purgatory-Hell (1976; Fig.), The Circle (1976), and The Apartment House (1976: Fig.).

Each numbered cubic cell in The Apartment House represents, as one can expect, an apartment, occupied by small cubes. Its doors can be opened, exposing the interior and the tenants, who tell us about their personal problems, each having his or her distinct voice.

In the middle of the confused daily round of that house, there is apartment #55, the dweller of which removes his projection from the crumbling world riddled with imperfection of every kind. We learn about him from his neighbors. For example, some of them call him a "yogi," while others simply call him a "creasy."

                The diagram of the content of several apartments can give a preliminary picture of that establishment.

In New York during the 1980s, the molecular structure of the cubes was transformed into the human-size figures that formed the new series of English speaking Cubic Organisms. Similarly to a biological process, the small cubic cells grew into big cubic organisms. In general, our works obtained another face but retained the same message, albeit modified under the new conditioning. It seemed that we moved from the early "Greek" sensibility, strictly conceptual, characteristic to our Moscow period to the "Roman" monumentality of forms typical of our time in New York.

The cubes can be found in the following public collections (links below):

Jean Brown Collection, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA

             The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

            Centre Pompidou Collection: (Cubes) (Mirror Game)  (2x2=4)  (Ursa Major)

            Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria

             Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ

             The Concepts, book,1012 (info)     (link to the pdf)

            Thought of Thoughts, series of books; about the Cubes and Cubic Organisms in book 2 Trespassing

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