Russian-born artists Rimma Gerlovina and Valeriy Gerlovin were leading proponents of the Samizdat art movement which was formed to circumvent official censorship in the former Soviet Union. The "underground" Samizdat artists frequently used text in their works to illustrate the primacy of language in the construction of social reality. This interest in the capricious nature of language has been carried on in the Gerlovins art since their arrival in New York City in 1980.

The Gerlovins most recent collaborative works explore the fertile intersection of linguistics, mythology, painting, performance, sculpture, and photography. The Photoglyphs series was begun in 1989 to visualize the percept that "unity comes in a fusion of duality." By presenting visual and textual conundrums, they invite the viewer to participate in unravelling the paradox, thus forming a bridge to spiritual and mystical transformation. The participatory aspect of these works is central to their meaning and to their utility.

Though their imagemaking techniques are deceptively simple, the variety and scope of the Gerlovins oeuvre is diverse and surprising. Much like the concept of "a yoking of opposites" in Japanese haiku, these "visual formulas" contain the dynamic symmetry of opposing forces. For the Gerlovins, the body becomes a tabufa rasa on which to conjure their organic metaphysics. The resulting photographs are "still performances" intended as objects of meditation and tools for transformation.

The artists use their own faces and bodies as a site for their art, placing their work in the rich tradition of body decoration which stretches across continents and spans millennia. Historical precedents in many fields fuel the Gerlovins work as they trace the ancestral roots of mythology. Many of the references which inform these works are centuries old. There are direct allusions to Eastern perennial philosophy, Gnostic and Christian iconography, epistemology, alchemy, numerology, and many other systems of thought. Also, the Renaissance notion that all measures and denominations are derived from the human form is everywhere in evidence. But despite the erudition of their source material, Photoglyphs also contain an equal measure of humor and wit. Through the skillful blending of ancient and contemporary forms the Gerlovins have forged enlightening hybrids which emanate from the origins of language and thought.

Mark Sloan, Curator

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