“Protective Layer” is a continuation of Kostiantyn Zorkin’s creative practice. However, the changes in reality that are happening now made him reconsider the meaning of previously created images and techniques he was using.
The art world Zorkin has been creating from wood during the last few years was unexpectedly complemented by another, more aggressive material, metal. In this project, traumatising and traumatised metal becomes an embodiment of wartime feelings, a constant correlation between protection and defencelessness which is identical to the sensations of the human body.
Kostiantyn Zorkin believes that his art and this project cannot be tragedy documentation in literal sense, but art rarely tells about and describes the events in a direct way. It is essential for Zorkin that art should record the exact mental and physical tension that unites all of us in the fight.
This project has five conceptual blocks: The Enemy Is Inside, Walls, Leaves, Earth, Seedlings.
Kostiantyn Zorkin (b. 1985, Kharkiv) is a Ukrainian artist who works in performance, installation art, puppetry, graphics, sculpture and land art. In his practice, Zorkin uses natural materials like wood and metal, and hand methods of their processing. The main subject of Zorkin’s art is returning to art its magical and mythological functions.