Borders
Borders is Zhestkov’s first project exploring the integration of digital sculptures into the physical reality.
Series of artworks, 2022
Borders is Zhestkov’s first project exploring the integration of digital sculptures into our reality. Placed in minimalistic white-box spaces, they are seen from the human perspective and inherently limited by — or adapted to — it.
The project addresses the theme of how our perception and imagination are shaped by the principles of the material world. For millennia, our senses have evolved to navigate and interpret this physical space, shaping our understanding of possible.
Because of this lens of perception, emerging digital worlds that don’t have limitations of our universe are still tightly connected with our biological nature and defined by our lives in natural environments.
Modeled after physical reality, digital environments mirror the world we know, providing a sense of comfort and familiarity. However, this mirroring effect could be limiting our ability to fully explore the potential of virtual spaces.
Generated environments have the potential to be drastically different and to bring about new ways of living and co-existing, prospects that are not yet fully realised. In their current state, metaverses are a helpful metaphor, but is this approach leaving more complicated and promising methods of interaction with digital behind?
Inconspicuously confining the digital objects within the three dimensions, Zhestkov raises a question of the complexity of his creations that may stay invisible to us. Their agency in this process of adaptation to the boxes remains undisclosed. Limited by the space or adjusted to it, the digital sculptures are an embodiment of tangled and simultaneous online dimension that is placed in a digital white cube to be interpreted.
Technological mediation plays a crucial role in this exploration, serving as both a bridge and a barrier between the digital and physical realms. A screen becomes a semipermeable membrane that connects us to its other side and lets some information pass through to make the interaction between humans and enigmatic virtual systems possible.
Perplexing and eerily familiar at the same time, Zhestkov’s sculptures move and change based on natural rhythms and seem to be a part of the same evolution that brought about organic life. Oscillating and firing up with colour and energy, they exist in a state of dynamic equilibrium and support the internal balance through cyclical processes.
For the artist, the synthetic worlds are the culmination of our ingenuity and imagination, born from the foundation of our biological heritage. Digital and biological are not opposed for Zhestkov but rather meant to be integrated into a symbiotic union. Zhestkov's project is a reflection on our changing relationship with the virtual realities and actors.
Through this lens, we are reminded that the boundaries between the digital and the physical are not fixed, but are instead fluid and constantly evolving, a continuum rather than a dichotomy.
Seoul, 2023 Unit London Takeover
Nassima Landau, Tel Aviv, 2022
Simulation Hypothesis
First gallery solo show finding elements of universe creation in human culture and art.
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Metaphysics
A series of artworks experimenting with material in the digital vastness.
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Artificial Organisms
A combination of biological symmetry and impeccable digital matter, they are a representation of budding artificial intelligence.
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Modules
Modules is a VR art experience, where architecture, sculpture, film, and music blend together to immerse viewers into Zhestkov's world.
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Borders is Zhestkov’s first project exploring the integration of digital sculptures into the physical reality.
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Waves
Connecting particles into mighty flows, Waves is an examination of shifts of energy in complicated systems that lead to the inevitable transformation.
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Points of View
A diptych about mind and interpretation created for Christie’s charity sale.
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PlayStation 5
Two bespoke artworks created for the global launch of PlayStation 5 based on Zhestkov's projects — Layers and Computations, which became embodiments of the soul of the new console.
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BMW i4
An exploration of the primary physical forces behind the car and a research of forces that underlie our existence in the universe.
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Computations
Computations speculates a future when computation moves from the opaque ‘black boxes’ of our laptops and devices out into the world.
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Layers
Layers is an artwork dedicated to the exploration of the relationship between the inner and the outer sides of objects.
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Volumes
An abstract representation of transformation and resilience, Volumes is an observation of digital sculptures consisting of millions of spherical particles.
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