The Ways of Folding Space & Time
The Ways of Folding Space & Time
The Ways of Folding Space & Time
It is void and non-void
and beyond the void
and is abiding in the heart.
There is (in It) neither meditation
nor meditator, nor the meditated,
nor the non-meditated.
Tejobindu Upanishad, st.10
“Folds in the fabric of space and time” is a very scientific term referring to gravitational fields and waves, but the phrase is also known as an artistic metaphor describing the phenomena of altered states of consciousness.
Meditation is one of the methods of achieving an altered state of consciousness. In various spiritual movements there are meditation techniques with varying degrees of immersion. Usually meditation is performed with eyes closed or covered, but there is the Tratak technique, which involves looking closely at a candle flame or a drawn dot without looking away or blinking for a long time. At first it seems very difficult, or even impossible, but at some point in the practice the mind calms down, the eyes relax, but do not lose the object of observation. The gaze becomes detached, and the vector of attention is directed into the inner space, into the folds of space and time.
With the help of a half-frame camera I capture the physical reality of the circumstances in which I find myself. At the moment of photographing, I remember the altered state of consciousness and try to catch its shadow in the photograph.
The presented diptychs, I feel, point to the desired fold, because it is hidden in the space between the frames. In fact, the main thing in the presented photographs is the emptiness of the inter-frame space, and the plot is needed only so that there is an opportunity to notice this emptiness, and maybe look into it, to evaluate how flexible the fold of the fabric of space-time is or, in other words, how The rabbit hole is deep. This also works the other way: in a variety of circumstances one can find a connection with the transcendent.
Space changes dimension, and time from “past-present-future” turns into the moment “now”, which turns into “eternity”. To define a fold, space and time are needed. Photography is physically connected to these categories.
Crimea - Moscow - Georgia,
2022-2023
Along the path of the Force
A person is born into this world pure, knowing neither evil nor good. In the world of a child, everything is one and interconnected, and when faced with something for the first time, he learns and acts based on his nature, responding and cognizing the phenomenon empirically. In Andrei Ivanov’s work “On Non-Duality” we are faced with optics and vision, which cannot in any way be called childish, but which, through effort, through the act of acceptance of an already adult person, make the world one, but not like in childhood – when the child is not yet aware of something knows. This unity just grows from knowledge, and from the acceptance of different aspects of life, different experiences that an adult, educated person encounters. The world of non-duality that the author is talking about is a world in which there is no category of condemnation. Or more precisely, it is present in him only as one of many other phenomena that exist in the world. Even when dealing with difficult experiences that people usually tend to reject, through an internal effort that comes from love, Ivanov accepts them, purpose and healing the space of separation, resolving conflict – both internal and external, creating a space of wholeness and unity.
The non-duality of Ivanov’s view is not just an attempt not to divide the world into black and white, into bad and good, but it is a person’s ability to accept life, people in this world, in this endless stream of chaos – without judgment and bias. The author draws this strength from extremely honest dialogue with himself and the ability to be present in the present moment. As if plunging into a state of deep meditation, reaching from within a state of peace in an external world engulfed in suffering, the artist conducts this healing space of non-judgment through his gaze and vision, capturing it with the help of a camera. Being fascinated by the very phenomenon of life, in search of an internal “total landscape” of compassion and acceptance, Ivanov creates an image not of splitting and comparison – as one could read from the obvious form of work – the form of diptychs – but creates an image of acceptance of life – with all its difference and versatility - in differences and differences, finding the strength to love life even more. Ivanov’s diptychs are executed by the hand of a master, they are technically executed at the highest level, but the very fact of searching for such optics, such a look and way of seeing the world in modern realities speaks not of feat and heroism (which have no place in life), but of the need to rediscover the world, to see with his new look, reborn from the ashes. Like a phoenix, burning to the ground and being renewed, Ivanov for a second returns us to the moment of “purity of the soul”, showing the nature of the world, life and photography as they really are – pure and indivisible, alive and – in eternity, genuine, simple and as open as possible.
Ivanov’s work exists in several traditions at once. It inherits well both the critical, analytical Western thought and the contemplative view of the East. But in fact, the essence of this work is precisely in the synthesis and its Russian originality. You can draw parallels with the cultures of the East – with Japanese Shinto, with Buddhism and the Taoist teachings of non-duality and unity, you can refer the project to psychoanalysis and the works of European philosophers, and they will fully fit into both traditions; everyone will see in them their own cultural code, but in fact here we see absolutely Russian intuitiveness, maximum sincerity, even confessionalism of the method and voice of the lyrical hero. The strength of this work is in its synthesis and universality - it shows modern Russian photography through a paradoxical combination of the incongruous, which develops as harmoniously and holistically as possible, revealing itself to each viewer exactly as he is able to see. In search of inner truth, freedom and liberation from the external, the artist takes us into the depths of his soul and leads us through the paradoxical simplicity of the method and visual precision to ourselves.
But these diptychs testify not only to an internal search, and an attempt to reconcile or understand the reality and time in which we live, they combine the multidimensional structures of different cultural codes, which, like fractals, form a harmonious pattern, into a single field, giving rise to a unique landscape of unity , who has a very high degree of communication skills.
Walking the path of the Force, the author seeks the unknown. You could even say that he sees something that is not there. Or is it still there, but hidden, and through his work the author documents the very fact of the existence of this “Other”, the otherworldly – what practitioners of various spiritual teachings of the East, or priests, or children deal with - and what we often unlearn see growing up. By shifting the assemblage point in such a way that the very root of separation goes away, the photographer captures this new world in his works, and takes us into a space in which, although there is difficulty and conflict, they are present only as a touch in the overall landscape, as one of the facets of this world. Like a blade of grass breaking through the earth in search of a source of light, like a sprout dries up the earth, striving to live, grow and blossom, so the suffering inherent in our world acquires a different quality and becomes helpers on the path of finding and knowing the world and life as they are, along with other phenomena, feelings and events that are present in our lives. In Ivanov’s work “on non-duality” we see the view of a master, the view of a grown-up artist of the millennial generation, who is not looking for loud statements and shocking attention from the public. These works cannot be called introverted, and they are personal, but the strength and accuracy of the author’s voice speaks of maturity, inner freedom and independence, the author’s fearlessness to be himself in the modern world, the absence of fear of condemnation, the desire to please someone. Also, these works speak of lightness and love for life – transmitted from the author to the viewer, filling him with confidence, compassion and acceptance. The author, like a sage who has lived through more than one incarnation, who has seen this and that, conveys to us knowledge about the nature of things and phenomena. By watching these works, we gain knowledge that is non-dual and indivisible, which can only be “recognized” by the inner eye, and which introduces us to the triumph of life, giving us a feeling of acceptance and presence, calmness, belonging to eternity and the nature of love of this world.
Nikita Pirogov, editor
It is void and non-void
and beyond the void
and is abiding in the heart.
There is (in It) neither meditation
nor meditator, nor the meditated,
nor the non-meditated.
Tejobindu Upanishad, st.10
“Folds in the fabric of space and time” is a very scientific term referring to gravitational fields and waves, but the phrase is also known as an artistic metaphor describing the phenomena of altered states of consciousness.
Meditation is one of the methods of achieving an altered state of consciousness. In various spiritual movements there are meditation techniques with varying degrees of immersion. Usually meditation is performed with eyes closed or covered, but there is the Tratak technique, which involves looking closely at a candle flame or a drawn dot without looking away or blinking for a long time. At first it seems very difficult, or even impossible, but at some point in the practice the mind calms down, the eyes relax, but do not lose the object of observation. The gaze becomes detached, and the vector of attention is directed into the inner space, into the folds of space and time.
With the help of a half-frame camera I capture the physical reality of the circumstances in which I find myself. At the moment of photographing, I remember the altered state of consciousness and try to catch its shadow in the photograph.
The presented diptychs, I feel, point to the desired fold, because it is hidden in the space between the frames. In fact, the main thing in the presented photographs is the emptiness of the inter-frame space, and the plot is needed only so that there is an opportunity to notice this emptiness, and maybe look into it, to evaluate how flexible the fold of the fabric of space-time is or, in other words, how The rabbit hole is deep. This also works the other way: in a variety of circumstances one can find a connection with the transcendent.
Space changes dimension, and time from “past-present-future” turns into the moment “now”, which turns into “eternity”. To define a fold, space and time are needed. Photography is physically connected to these categories.
Crimea - Moscow - Georgia,
2022-2023
Along the path of the Force
A person is born into this world pure, knowing neither evil nor good. In the world of a child, everything is one and interconnected, and when faced with something for the first time, he learns and acts based on his nature, responding and cognizing the phenomenon empirically. In Andrei Ivanov’s work “On Non-Duality” we are faced with optics and vision, which cannot in any way be called childish, but which, through effort, through the act of acceptance of an already adult person, make the world one, but not like in childhood – when the child is not yet aware of something knows. This unity just grows from knowledge, and from the acceptance of different aspects of life, different experiences that an adult, educated person encounters. The world of non-duality that the author is talking about is a world in which there is no category of condemnation. Or more precisely, it is present in him only as one of many other phenomena that exist in the world. Even when dealing with difficult experiences that people usually tend to reject, through an internal effort that comes from love, Ivanov accepts them, purpose and healing the space of separation, resolving conflict – both internal and external, creating a space of wholeness and unity.
The non-duality of Ivanov’s view is not just an attempt not to divide the world into black and white, into bad and good, but it is a person’s ability to accept life, people in this world, in this endless stream of chaos – without judgment and bias. The author draws this strength from extremely honest dialogue with himself and the ability to be present in the present moment. As if plunging into a state of deep meditation, reaching from within a state of peace in an external world engulfed in suffering, the artist conducts this healing space of non-judgment through his gaze and vision, capturing it with the help of a camera. Being fascinated by the very phenomenon of life, in search of an internal “total landscape” of compassion and acceptance, Ivanov creates an image not of splitting and comparison – as one could read from the obvious form of work – the form of diptychs – but creates an image of acceptance of life – with all its difference and versatility - in differences and differences, finding the strength to love life even more. Ivanov’s diptychs are executed by the hand of a master, they are technically executed at the highest level, but the very fact of searching for such optics, such a look and way of seeing the world in modern realities speaks not of feat and heroism (which have no place in life), but of the need to rediscover the world, to see with his new look, reborn from the ashes. Like a phoenix, burning to the ground and being renewed, Ivanov for a second returns us to the moment of “purity of the soul”, showing the nature of the world, life and photography as they really are – pure and indivisible, alive and – in eternity, genuine, simple and as open as possible.
Ivanov’s work exists in several traditions at once. It inherits well both the critical, analytical Western thought and the contemplative view of the East. But in fact, the essence of this work is precisely in the synthesis and its Russian originality. You can draw parallels with the cultures of the East – with Japanese Shinto, with Buddhism and the Taoist teachings of non-duality and unity, you can refer the project to psychoanalysis and the works of European philosophers, and they will fully fit into both traditions; everyone will see in them their own cultural code, but in fact here we see absolutely Russian intuitiveness, maximum sincerity, even confessionalism of the method and voice of the lyrical hero. The strength of this work is in its synthesis and universality - it shows modern Russian photography through a paradoxical combination of the incongruous, which develops as harmoniously and holistically as possible, revealing itself to each viewer exactly as he is able to see. In search of inner truth, freedom and liberation from the external, the artist takes us into the depths of his soul and leads us through the paradoxical simplicity of the method and visual precision to ourselves.
But these diptychs testify not only to an internal search, and an attempt to reconcile or understand the reality and time in which we live, they combine the multidimensional structures of different cultural codes, which, like fractals, form a harmonious pattern, into a single field, giving rise to a unique landscape of unity , who has a very high degree of communication skills.
Walking the path of the Force, the author seeks the unknown. You could even say that he sees something that is not there. Or is it still there, but hidden, and through his work the author documents the very fact of the existence of this “Other”, the otherworldly – what practitioners of various spiritual teachings of the East, or priests, or children deal with - and what we often unlearn see growing up. By shifting the assemblage point in such a way that the very root of separation goes away, the photographer captures this new world in his works, and takes us into a space in which, although there is difficulty and conflict, they are present only as a touch in the overall landscape, as one of the facets of this world. Like a blade of grass breaking through the earth in search of a source of light, like a sprout dries up the earth, striving to live, grow and blossom, so the suffering inherent in our world acquires a different quality and becomes helpers on the path of finding and knowing the world and life as they are, along with other phenomena, feelings and events that are present in our lives. In Ivanov’s work “on non-duality” we see the view of a master, the view of a grown-up artist of the millennial generation, who is not looking for loud statements and shocking attention from the public. These works cannot be called introverted, and they are personal, but the strength and accuracy of the author’s voice speaks of maturity, inner freedom and independence, the author’s fearlessness to be himself in the modern world, the absence of fear of condemnation, the desire to please someone. Also, these works speak of lightness and love for life – transmitted from the author to the viewer, filling him with confidence, compassion and acceptance. The author, like a sage who has lived through more than one incarnation, who has seen this and that, conveys to us knowledge about the nature of things and phenomena. By watching these works, we gain knowledge that is non-dual and indivisible, which can only be “recognized” by the inner eye, and which introduces us to the triumph of life, giving us a feeling of acceptance and presence, calmness, belonging to eternity and the nature of love of this world.
Nikita Pirogov, editor
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