A Many Splintered Thing at the Void Gallery in Derry
WHEN Irina Popova’s photographic study on the concept of feelings emerged online, it caused such outrage that police were called to investigate the subjects.
Her shocking photographs – depicting drug-addicted Russian parents Lilya and Pasha, and their one-year-old daughter Anfisa – now adorn the walls of the newly opened Void Gallery in Derry’s Patrick Street.
Void recently unveiled its new home – an expansive space spanning most of the length of one of the city’s former shirt factories – with a typically provocative show from a variety of Russian artists depicting love in its many forms. A Many Splintered Thing is curated by Greg McCartney, fresh from a stint at the MAC in Belfast, and Susanne Stitch.
It features works by Bieke Depoorter, whose Ou Menya (meaning ‘with you’) depicts the chaos of family life in the villages along the Trans-Siberian train route. Also showing is Jana Romanova, whose Waiting is a sweet and fascinating depiction of expectant parents sleeping. It contained 40 images, for 40 weeks of pregnancy.
Nadia Sablin’s work Aunties reflects the lives of her father’s spinster sisters as they returned from the city and embraced a more traditional way of life in their 70s.
But what attracted most interest was the hugely controversial works of Popova. Art demands a reaction and she caused just that when she moved in with a drug addict couple and their baby in St Petersburg in 2008, capturing their chaotic lives and what she perceived was love among their dire existence.
The pictures are not pretty. When they were unleashed on the public there was talk of prosecution and a campaign to remove Anfisa. Popova refused to hand over the details of the couple to the police, something she says she does not regret.
However, holding their life up to a public mirror may have helped in some way in turning their lives around. Anfisa’s mother disappeared some years ago, apparently to rehab, and the girl, now eight, is being raised by her father, who no longer uses drugs.
:: Until September 12; admission free (derryvoid.com).
