Andrey Kartashov, Sisyphus, 2023, Giclée Print on Canvas

An interpretation of the ancient myth, where the role of Sisyphus is played by a media person, or rather the back of a movie character, patiently rolling a boulder bearing the imprinted artifacts of consumer civilization to the alluring peaks of the glamor of the possible, to the monetized freedom of capital. The boulder becomes a curse and a blessing: the peaks beckon and oblige, there are millions of ways to reach the top and to roll the boulder – they will suffice for an eternity. The hands of the hero, century after century, soften the sharp edges of the boulder, overgrown with new artifacts of cultures and religions... The era of consumption has turned the universe into an illusory pipeline of possibilities. You must be an achiever. You must succeed. You must push up your boulder. Why should you be thinking of the purpose of doing this? In this particular case, we see on the top of Sisyphus’s mountain the outlines of the Statue of Liberty and the Oscar statuette. And the recognizable back of the man who succeeded. But hasn’t the boulder rolled down after touching the coveted peaks? The boulder acts as an allegory of dualism, reconciling the era of claims with a sense of duty. The noosphere of globalization and the ball of a scarab beetle simultaneously... Andrey Kartashov graduated from the A. Erdely Professional College of Arts of the Transcarpathian Academy of Arts in Uzhgorod, and later graduated from the Department of Painting of the Repin St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Since 2007, he has been a member of the Portrait Painters Association of America (PSA), and in 2016, he joined the Union of Artists of Russia. His works are represented in the collections of the Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, Tianjin Museum, and Liu Haisu Museum of Art in China, Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum in Austria, as well as in private collections of collectors from Russia, the UK, the USA, China, Ukraine, Poland, France, and the Netherlands. Produced using more forward-going technologies like the Metis scanner, which allows for printing out excellent quality art pieces it becomes a high-class, exclusive art piece. Height: 222 cm Width: 140 cm