VIKTOR KOBYLIANSKI
Kyiv, Ukraine, 1995
Currently based in Portland, Oregon Viktor Kobylianski works with materials commonly associated with construction, including dust, mortar slurries, pigments, sand, and raw fabric, with the image formed through imprinting.
Kobylianski’s practice is process-driven and subtractive. He establishes conditions in which materials cure and settle. What remains is not depiction, but evidence that something has occurred. Applied directly by hand, the process remains open-ended. Form emerges after the material has set, as its behavior determines how trace becomes embedded in the surface. Individual surfaces are often stitched together, assembling separate fragments into a single work.
Removed from their functioning role, these materials shift from utility to memory. Positioned between presence and absence, the works operate as a physical record rather than an images.
What fails to fully form is carried forward and made to hold.
