Bon Voyage

Vacant and empty places are revealed in Michael Yakhilevich’s new exhibition. Isolated characters – planes, cars, boats – emerge from the void. The images appear to have been carefully filtered and selected and only later situated on the canvas with utmost precision, surrendering the lead role to the charged void.

The combination of concrete and universal elements is one of the main characteristic in Yakhilevich’s paintings. Initially, the elements seem familiar: an airport, a pool, the landscape. At second glance, the events seem to be taking place in an unspecified or universal space. In this space, people and objects are representations – a secret alphabet or hieroglyphics concealing an additional, mystical meaning.

In most of the compositions of the series Bon Voyage, Yakhilevich’s irony and hidden smile is apparent, reminiscent of a puppeteer at work. For instance, in Three Boats, a straightforward and even comic situation unfolds: three people peacefully sunbathe in their boats adrift on the river. Simultaneous corresponding images come to mind – from biblical Moses in the ark on the Nile to the journey of the souls of the dead wandering on the mythological River Lethe to a better world. Serenity, vacation and leisure coincide as life comes to an end, making way for death and the end.

According to Yahilevich, Bon Voyage does not depict the landscape of foreign beaches; rather, the series itself is the travel experience. Yakhilevich’s combination of mundane trivialities, a sense of tranquility and the emptiness of the universe incorporates the range of human experiences. These experiences refer to the passage from place to place and from one life situation to another, granting Yakhilevich’s work a profound sense of spirituality, alongside his sober and ironic gaze.

Lena Zaidel