Car for sale, 2018
photographs, paintings; installation dimensions variable, 2 photographs: 150×150 cm
Car for Sale is a diptych of photographs that sees the artist juggling images and their meanings in his characteristic manner. The twists and turns of an everyday situation become an ironic story. We can guess that the person visible in the photograph has sold their car and gone on vacation. One of the shots captures the car; the other, the heroine of the story, who is relaxing on rocks in the sun. The narrative is found somewhere between the two images, which are exhibited like paintings on the walls of the room. They allow us to imagine the chain of events that have befallen the mystery woman. These imagined events appear like footnotes in small-sized photographs and paintings, revealing non-linear segments of microhistory and turning into almost metaphysical experience fractals. Having begun as a metaphor, Outland has now reversed and become grounded in reality, challenging the viewer to perform a new interpretative somersault.
His characteristic form of expression is recognisable irrespective of the medium he uses. His photographs, paintings, drawings, videos and installations present ironic and at times absurd takes on everyday objects and situations. Images in his work are mostly grouped in diptychs that create new meanings through mutual interplay. In an attempt to introduce unexpected developments into the narratives of his works, the artist often brings together several images and elements of installation alongside witty textual accompaniments. Though often imbued with cynical jokes, these works are at the same time poetic in mood. They are produced in Mangaļi, a town on the periphery of Riga where Korovins’ wife’s parents own a house. This location has become his outland—simultaneously the centre and periphery of his creativity. Korovins comes from the Russian-speaking part of Latvian society, within which the outlander experience is very familiar.
Artist’s website: romankorovin.com