One of the more unusual and memorable art objects at Cosmoscow turned out, to my surprise, to be connected with Russian folk style: a panel of wooden Khokhloma spoons entitled “Rhythm of Generations”

One of the more unusual and memorable art objects at Cosmoscow turned out, to my surprise, to be connected with Russian folk style: a panel of wooden Khokhloma spoons entitled “Rhythm of Generations”. The result is a rather arresting appeal to folk crafts, and entirely without cranberry-sauce kitsch, even though we are dealing with one of the most recognisable products of the craft, whose reputation borders perilously on the notion of the souvenir. Nevertheless, the contemporary artistic language has managed to interpret the object as a statement about manual labour and the capacity of traditions to change.

I have already found out that the installation is timed to coincide with the 110th anniversary of the “Khokhloma Painting” factory. Hence each panel consists of 11 rows of 10 spoons, 110 objects in all, symbolising the 110 years since the founding of the School of Artistic Woodworking in Semyonov. Each decade is marked by three emblematic patterns, milestones of their time, which does not let us slip away from the living historical context and from the documenting of one of Russia's principal visual symbols.

The Nizhny Novgorod Region has, as usual, pleasantly surprised