Metaphysics
A series of artworks experimenting with material in the digital vastness.
Series of artworks, 2022
Untied by the limitations of the material reality, digital worlds give almost limitless opportunities for experimentation and creativity.
Contemporary science and artisanship make it possible to search around not just the limits of our physical space but around the limits of our imagination, testing multiple ideas and hypotheses in complex simulations.
Constructing new scenarios for humanity and its future, creators and visionaries can build bridges between physical and virtual that will ensure constant flux of concepts and ideas from the realm of pure abstraction back into the material universe.
Metamaterials are already made possible by modern science — the properties of such substances are defined by their carefully crafted structure rather than by their physical foundation. Implying visions of the future seen in the digital, physics and engineering can stretch further and look into the corners of the human mind that have not been explored by science yet.
To eliminate borders in our physical universe, we would have to overcome them in our minds as well. Philosophising about these emerging dimensions, we get back to the most fundamental questions about being, change, causality, and possibility, considered in metaphysics.
How do we choose the principles of the new worlds? Who becomes their designer? How are things connected inside these realities? All these issues are here to be examined by the artists and thinkers, architects of the future.
In Zhestkov’s project, metaphysics is present as this philosophical dimension as well as a literal phenomenon of physics in a digital space. Sculptures placed in the black vastness behind the screen exist in a symbiosis with physical properties of their surroundings.
Gravity and light are dynamic inside this space, and the viewers are left with the question of whether Zhestkov’s objects adapt to the turbulent environment or cause these fluctuations.
The artist creates external borders for his dynamic structures by combining simple geometrical shapes into expressive compositions and works with this self-imposed limitation throughout the series, giving the viewer moments to recognise and admire these shapes before moving forward from them again.
With these shifting forms, the artist conceptually refers to one of his most prominent themes — blend of real and virtual. The distinction between the two becomes more and more blurred as our technologies develop, and Zhestkov’s morphing sculptures embody this blend and dynamic adaptability. Being themselves a co-creation of human and algorithms, they exist between order of familiar systems and chaos of the unknown and show an example of how art can become a dialogue of people and technological agents.
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
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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