The picture of the peasant in Boris Orlov’s series of four silkscreens on metal is the reproduction of a classic Soviet photograph, a brother to those other peasants, athletes, pioneers, WWII soldiers, and pilots who play a leading role in the artist’s iconography. The key element in this act of remembrance that Orlov stages are the bright red ornament that covers the space of the photograph, as ivy on the façade of a building. It works as a homogenous addition, like a jewel that embellishes the body, rather than devouring it. It adds depth to the whole image. At the end of the day, this is the work of the hands of an artist trained as a sculptor. This ornament helps to resist the inevitable corrosion that time does on memory. With its broken symmetrical perfection, it escapes time. It places itself in a space beyond time, or, as the artist likes to put it, “indifferent to time”.
