the turquoise ether magazine’s mission is to publish independent critical reviews of promising artists from over The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

Turquoise #6 — Hetaera Psappha (Russia)

Hetaera Psappha (real name: Lisa Minaeva) is a video artist from Russia. She creates video art using unique technique combining advantages of static photography with documentary conceptualism.

In each of her works, she invents and reinvents the method of its creation. Meta self-reflection, which we see in her art, distinguishes Hetaera Psappha from many contemporary video artists.

“Blossom of Silence” is one of the most interesting and paradoxical works of Hetaera Psappha. The project was created with the intention to investigate the human psyche without detaching oneself from realism. Silence was the tool for this investigation; primitive mini-DV camera helped to refrain from already familiar concept of “glamourization” of a portrait in modern media, thus being a tool of holding onto reality.

The creation of video art becomes the creation of a time capsule, a historical source. The deliberate use of ascetic techniques (non-position) made it possible to create the effect of an implicit boundary between documentary and artistic expression. “Blossom of Silence” is more than a video art, it contains elements of documentary theater, theatre of people, activist statements and expressionist gesture.

The blurred zone of video art forces every artist to come up with their own rules of existence in this field of art. Hetaera Psappha has chosen for herself a challenging and demanding path of humanistic memorialization of traces of human personality in the inhuman post-anthropic world of Internet documentation.

Author ✍️ Anton Medvedev for turquoise ether magazine