Ongoing series since 2009: Figurative screen-print collages inspired by the spirit of Dada and Surrealism.
"Mrs. Dangling & Joe – Killing Hours" (Detail) @ Brooklynite Gallery, New York 2010
"Rabotnika", Collage-Paste-Up, New York 2010 (Photo: Just / 1just.de)
"Rabotnika", Collage-Paste-Up, Mumbai 2011
The ongoing series consists of figurative screen-print collages inspired by the spirit of Dada and Surrealism. The name derives from the Russian word for workers, raising questions such as: What is work? Or where do I find work?
Physical work becomes increasingly invisible and more difficult to grasp. The Rabotniki figures also seem as they have fallen out of time, appearing alienated but nevertheless proud and confident. Whatever the Rabotniki are working on, they do it with heart, sweat and soul.
In those pieces they raise the curtain on some kind of dream logic. A regiment of multicolored patchwork characters tumbles on stage from another space-time continuum. Surrounded by mysterious, partly disturbing sceneries, these carnies, utopians and adventurists make their way with the unflinching confidence of a modern Munchausen. Various & Gould often incorporate personal experiences of closeness, distance and deracination into their imagery.
“A world where workers trade body parts depending on their needs, moving in tandem while performing their repetitive tasks in a choreographed ‘workers waltz’. Using found objects, work related symbols and their refined silkscreen techniques, the line between work and play becomes blurred inside the imaginative minds of Various & Gould.”
Rae McGrath, Brooklynite Gallery, NYC, 2010
