Irina Nakhova
12 SELECTED INSTALLATIONS 1994–2004
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ALERT: CODE ORANGE
2004
2 video projections,
(special thanks to Vladislav Efimov)
24 light boxes, various sizes from
17 x 24 x 24 cm to 28 x 90 x 90 cm
In each of her projects Irina Nakhova carefully examines the space of human life. The artist’s personality easily overflows the limits of the artifact, as she turns from an outside observer into a participant in the action. Her project «Alert: Code Orange» continues this tradition, while at the same time reducing sensuality and translating it into impersonal matrixes of mass culture. The TV screen shows an orange square: «Alert: Code Orange». A «critical mass of emptiness» indicates the degree of danger. In this danger zone, Christmas is devoid of any human presence. America is preparing for the festive ritual, expecting the appearance of quite contrary events. The sacred is equal in importance to the trauma of social prosperity; completeness and defectiveness reach equilibrium. The daytime lights go down in the shining box of the supermarket, revealing its real substance, which has previously been carefully hidden in the «danger zone». Its life flows into an object-filled sleep, constructing the universe of equality, vulgarity and insignificance. The reality of Christmas triumphs in the artist’s spontaneous gesture, magically turning the standard «light boxes» into mysterious flashlights, discovering absolutely safe spaces in this danger zone.
Vitaly Patsukov, 2004