Vasily Konstantin’s work portrays life’s dislocations. Bodies that once used to be ordinary become in his hands symbols of a dislocated society in search of identity with the help of fleshy markings that include being wrapped in cellophane, bagged and tagged. In effect Vasily reminds us of our ultimate human condition, one of disappearance from the stage of life. His visuals are exposed but contained with a bagged visceral spirituality. He documents the baser consequences if not aspirations of mankind. Not unlike Cristo, the artful sacking expert, Vasily would love to bag the whole world and call it This is your Final Destination barely visible through the translucency of cellophane sheeting.
Looking at his work we are immediately immersed in a disturbing world of the underprivileged that has little if any time to pursue thoughts beyond its immediate physical survival and those that remind themselves of their existence is through either self-mutilation or making a spectacle of their selves.
And as Leo Tolstoy succinctly said, In order to define art correctly it is necessary first of all to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure, and to consider it as one of the conditions of human life. ~Leo Tolstoy, What is Art?
