Any graduate of the Leningrad Vera Mukhina Higher School of Art and Industrial Design, which cherished tradition, was taught to embellish reality professionally. Both in his painting and installations Ivan Plusch wanders not far from nature, dissecting it and preserving a clear, albeit sometimes frightening, logic. He paints the sculptures “to frighten others”, puts pieces of the figurines in stall-coolers, replaces a tank turret with a church onion-dome... Everything is lifelike – with a tint of delirium... Pieces of tires on a gallery floor are either memories of a playground, or suggest a parking lot... The public has to ensconce itself between them, in order to contemplate, gazing upwards, the starry sky twinkling in the light boxes on the ceiling. However, the sky has to be observed through barrels, hovering like a bunch of balloons under the ceiling... These barrels are the very same notorious barrel, which is now associated exclusively with oil, prices and intrigues... Plusch

uses not oil barrels, but those for storing glycerine... However, this is also an interesting substance, necessary for the production of explosives... These barrels hover over the heads of the public like a small neat “unexploded” cloud... Not hindering contemplation, they, although somewhat bewildering, guide the eye and support the Heavens.

When looking at Ivan Plusch’s new installation, it is hard not to recall Kabakov’s “The Man Who Flew into Space…”. But these are new times and it’s quite another thing here... Plusch has no intention of flying off. He simply strives towards the beautiful by peering through the natural and inevitable interference of technocratic civilisation! In the project “Forward to the Future”, through those same barrels one could see “Sochi”, a fountain, flowers and snow-capped peaks in the distance. Now – there’s merely the sky overhead… Look and rejoice, perhaps you’ll also discover a moral imperative within yourself! However, the artist expresses the main idea differently, “You must see an artificial sky through rusty barrels – my ideal radiation... And, perhaps, then you’ll manage to survive at least one day without a mobile phone”.