sauco-m

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The interview given by me for FotoLoft gallery [link]
Shocking plots? Indeed?

- At the age of six I wanted to be an American Indian, at nine – a paleontologist, at thirteen – a surgeon. As early as in grade six or so I knew absolutely well that I wanted to be a surgeon and nobody else. I used to hammer at anatomical charts, I knew every single bone in a human body, everything was very serious indeed. But somehow the very last moment I applied for enrollment in the Irkutsk College of the Arts although I had no experience even of a common art school while the competition that year was 11 applicants per a place. Still it occurred somehow that I was matriculated and that moment I realized: that was my destiny. Everything I can originates from those studies: knowledge of design, drawing, painting, plastic art, surface anatomy, photography, art history – just everything. Years of studies were so saturated and exciting that I had not a single thought about anything beyond art.

- But what about the girls?
- To be honest, I rarely noticed anyone, I was too deep in my thoughts and ideas which is often the Aquarius’ case.

- But do your remember your first love at least?
- I do very distinctively. It was the first year in the college, I was 17 and everything was mutual. But then I was enrolled into the army and when I was finally back, the situation had changed as is often the case.

- But now there are so many model women around you. Is your wife jealous?
- Yes, I have a suspicion she is.

“No One Will Ever Cut Off My Second Chakra”

- Recently a postman has delivered to our gallery a postcard featuring your work “Eliseus’ Reflection of Murka’s Inner World” (see page ??). It was in our gallery, FotoLoft, that the postcard had been bought. The person who had purchased it had done this only to send it back with a text on the reverse declaring that such plots must not be promoted since they “rovoked abusive handling of animals”. The author wrote to us that “a phantom of imagination generated by a mentally unstable individual could be authorized for publication in a single place – that is a mental science textbook”. Apparently it is not the only reproach of the kind, some visitors of the gallery develop a similar reaction to your creative works.
- Oh, probably I even know who wrote the text!.. Mental science textbooks are published for psychiatrists as far as I can understand. And it is typical of a mentally unstable individual to blame people for his/her disorder ascribing those qualities to them. I love animals very much and this cat in particular.

- The boy on the photograph – he is your son. He didn’t mind “cutting” the cat in two.
- When I was working on this piece, a song from the childhood was vibrating in my mind “Of What, Of What, Of What Indeed Are Made Our Boys”. In a child’s view, a cat is made of Whiskas and my son caught the irony perfectly – he is even asking me to hang the picture in his room.

- Does he like your art in general?
- Well, he is interested in it, though he fails to understand many things. On the contrary my daughter likes it very much, she is even trying to copy me in something – she has managed to graduate stridently from an art school, still now she is running here and there with her camera shooting something and processing in Photoshop.

- Whose works occupy the walls of your home?
- Works by unknown Indian, Chinese and Mongolian authors.

- What about your author’s copies?
- In the room of my children only.

- Relatives put aside, how do you see a person willing to exhibit your works in his/her home?
- I see such a person as that aware of the world’s integrity, possessing individuality, refusing to take lead from mass consciousness and popular stereotypes, that in search of his/her own path.

- What about you? Are you in search of your own path yourself? Should you find it, what will happen to your art?
- A human is in search throughout the life and creative art is an integral part of the path.
It won’t go anywhere, no one will ever cut off my second chakra . I am going to live with it till my very last day. Although possibly time will come when I will become more interested in building birdhouses and hanging them all around on trees – this is creative work as well! It is essential to express oneself and now I am doing it in this way, later I will possibly do it in another. Human inner world is unrestricted and today I realize as little as 1-2% of my ego in creative work.

- What significantly motivates you to creative work?
- Images overwhelming my mind. I have to get rid of them and that is when I set to work.

- Do you have your favorite works implementing your ideas most precisely and vividly?
- There are several pictures of the kind. I love them. E.g. those are “His El’s Mother” and “Snowballs”

“What Spectators See Is Their Inner World”

- What do you want to do with your spectators: to change them, to uncover their subconscious, to help them to explore themselves and the world?
- I confess that about 10 years ago I used to experiment on my spectators using certain esoteric knowledge. It used to be amusing then. Now many things have changed, still stereotypes need to be destroyed so as not to get stuck in the passivism and ignorance of the reality. When one understands what I want to convey and what I felt when creating the work – this is an extremely exciting experience for me. I would be happy to act as a guide in exploration of the world. And it would be cool if everyone understood that they and their whole environment are the God’s creation. The world is actually beautiful but too bad that we fail to notice this or plainly don’t want to notice this too often.

- Do you consider yourself a controversial artist?
- In my native Irkutsk occasionally I was denied authorization to exhibit my works and I even pledged “to never do the like again”. I guess that single individuals understand my creative works in Irkutsk, therefore I try to be as inconspicuous as possible. But on the whole I am not afraid of exhibiting my works; once when I exhibited my paintings I used to be scared a little but all my fears have one since. One should not be afraid of one’s own inner voice, one should listen to it.

- But are they ready to perceive you?
- Be they ready or not, still the accept me. It cannot be any other way, one always passes art through the perspective of one’s subconscious. Everything one sees constitutes one’s own world devised by oneself or imposed by the society.

- Why are you going round and round! The question is as clear as it can be: for a majority it is difficult to understand you, your plots rather shock people.
- Shocking plots? Indeed? If I wanted to shock, I would surely achieve the effect. Simply I never demonstrate works actually off-limits, I even destroy some of them so that I am never tempted to show them to someone – for instance, I have destroyed some of my works of the Fingers series. Thus, there exists a boundary and I maintain it. I accept some of the ethical rules imposed by the society and I temporize. I am constantly aware of which works deserve being exhibited.

“I Can Say For Sure: Those People Felt Better At That Moment”

- One afternoon, when the gallery was almost closed, a woman came. She undertook kneeling to your works without being ashamed of others – fortunately there were not many visitors. She kneeled to each of you photographs for very long, totally motionless. When we asked whether she was all right and offered help, she just stood up and left in silence…
- This is not the only occurrence as far as I know. I guess I know the nature beyond those acts but now I prefer to abstain from comments. Not everyone can understand, or worse, someone can understand wrongfully and accusations and questions to me will grow. I can say for sure the only thing: those people felt better at that moment.

- Your works rarely depict men. What is the reason?
- It is simple. Men rarely come to me. Probably this is because, as I see it, I understand woman’s nature better than man’s. I do not invite models indeed, they come themselves. Most of them pose for the first time – it these works that possess highest energetics. Apparently there is a moment when time comes for an artist and a model to meet so that something is born that has been in the air for long.

- Have your models ever been shocked and dissatisfied with the result when the work was over?
- It may seem strange but many of them have not even seen the result and I have never met them again after the shooting session. In general no one has ever expressed discontent to me – I believe they explore themselves and their inner world in those works and tactfully keep silent 

- What does a woman‘s image stand for in your art?
- It stands for soul – pure, naïve, naked in front of the whole world which is no simple at all and sometimes cruel. Every image emerges spontaneously, sometimes in sleep, sometimes while driving, after a scene witnessed in the street, after reading a sophisticated book or hearing a phrase. Often even during work on a picture.

- All your works are saturated with erotism and sexuality. What is this?
- This is love. It is often coupled with erotism and sexuality.

- Are you hurt when someone claims that highly distinguished erotism of your works an indication of a maniacal obsession?
- I am not easily hurt.

“Absolutely Agree! It’s About Me”

- Could you convey same plots using the traditional language of painting?
- Easily. Once it used to be my only occupation – painting, I mean. My first work took the form of a sketch for a painting created on the basis of the original photograph with Photoshop. I believe that paintings impress a spectator a little milder, are perceived not so realistically as compared to photographs, although the backroom is the same. For instance, works by Dali or Magritte do not shock anyone now – they are perceived as entirely classical paintings. Time goes, and people get used to things. Besides, I love sculpture, I studies it and even sculpted a little. A few times I tried to master 3Dmax but either I failed to find a good tutor or I realized that it was taking too much time – on the whole the attempts failed. Still, I make my works three-dimensional, I am used to seeing them as sculptures which are so fascinating to examine from different perspectives

- I know that your transition from painting to photography was triggered by allergic reaction to oil paint. Do you believe it is your destiny?
- Just to the point… Ten years ago, when I had already understood that oil painting was becoming a threat to my health I decided at least to reduce the time I was spending working with paints and solvents and to sketch for the paintings on a PC, in Photoshop. It turned out to be rather fascinating and useful. I made sketches and then transferred them onto canvas. Those sketches were accumulated one after another and finally I had no time to paint them all. It was then that a good friend of mine, a photographer, saw the sketches and told me that they were not bad at all and it was time to exhibit them. He organized our joint photographic exhibition in the then only gallery of Irkutsk. His name is Oleg Stolyarov – probably those who like my works should be grateful to him. Besides, he was the one to shoot the first photographic material for me since at that time I even did not have a decent camera. The exhibition was a success, it was something new in photography. Oleg advised me to send my works to the international photographic show Siberia 2000 in Novosibirsk. I had not expected this and was really surprised to receive in Irkutsk a delegation of the show organizers who intentionally came to Irkutsk only to hand over to me the gold medal and a prize from Canon. Thereafter I embarked on participating in annual international photographic shows and by 2004 I had four gold awards, special FIAP awards and many other things. And then I went underground – there was a break of two years and I did not draw anything. In 2006 I started appearing in the Internet by little. By the way it was in the Internet that FotoLoft found me.

- Do you think that computer pictorial art can actually compete with the traditional painting?
- It has been competing for a long time. Even judging by prices of traditional and computer works of same formats.

- Does computer pictorial art have any competitive advantages?
- For me the advantage is the greater number of viewers, besides, computer work enhances my abilities and it seems to me more fascinating by some parameters. Nothing can replace the oil paint smell and the touch of brush against canvas, though.

- How long does it take to make a work?
- It differs. It depends on the total amount of time I possess and I can afford. Generally I need an hour or two to concentrate on the work, to get dissolved in it and if I know that nothing will disturb me during the period, I guess a day or a night is enough for a full-fledged and complete piece. If you work by fits and starts, an hour or so a day or a week, the process extends too far, you burn out and many works are left unfinished.

- When your piece is complete, does a desire to change or to improve something visit you?
- As soon as I have published my work – never. Since it’s a kind of imprint, a cast of the moment, my attitude, emotions and affections. A kind of personal diary which is maintained by someone on paper – it would be silly to cross out and to improve anything on it.

- Which of your works took the most of you to create?
- Works I never finished took the most time. May be one day I will look differently at them and they will materialize themselves at last – that moment I would be able to say that they have taken several years. My fastest work I created in one breath and practically with no alternatives was “Luboff And Doves” . It took me about four hours to create it. “His El’s Mother” required six hours of non-stop work inclusive of intermediary shooting sessions.

- What differs a work created on a by-order basis from a work at dictation of your soul?
- Non-involvement of the soul that is actually the difference. But in fact I very rarely work on a by-order basis. Should someone come and want to be photographed, it means neither that I will actually shoot nor that I will create a work.

- In other words art and business do not confront each other in your life?
- They confront. Business does not always connect with art and sometimes it supplants art. I had a time, in 2004-2006, when I did not create a single piece although there were ideas in the air and even some finger drawings on the same medium.

- The last question. Max Sauco – who is he? Can you describe yourself?
- It is beyond my strength to describe myself.

- Then I will have a try. Max Sauco is an artist who succeeds in dissecting the inner world, ideas and subconscious of a human of today through stripping and taking out from a human’s viscera the most genuine things. Things hiding behind the social masks of statuses and behind biological covers but remain unaltered for millions of years – feelings, emotions, the ego. A lot of people spend their lives remaining unknown even to their closest human beings. Probably this is due to the fear to be disapproved and to remain misunderstood. It is much easier to get dressed in a carnival costume and to put on a mask in order to blend into the pageant and to dance to the music. Max Sauco is a kind of costume designer who redresses people and takes off the carnival masks so as to demonstrate: what they try to cover up is in fact absolutely imperishable, beautiful, genuine and actually unique. That said, artist Sauco himself lives in a quiet observer’s costume and takes off his mask only at his desk. Probably this is the real value? In a closed vessel with a boiling liquid inside temperature is higher and boiling is more intense but should you open it the liquid will get spilled. Now, is there anything you disagree with?
- Cool! Absolutely agree. It is about me.

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