'Check Point Trap', 2023, metal table frame, glass plate, fireplace ash rake, wooden torch in metal case from the time of WWI, wooden decorative figure of a swan, expired Belarusian passport, 84 cm x 90 cm x 48 cm
Gleb Amankulov (b. 1988 Minsk, Belarus) currently lives and works in Vienna. Amankulov completed his MA of Fine Arts in the Sculpture and Spatial Strategies department of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna under Professors Monica Bonvicini and Iman Issa in 2022. Previously he studied at the Belarusian State Academy of Fine Arts, Minsk (Printmaking Department, BA, 2013) and the College of Arts and Design, Minsk in 2007.
Amankulov’s practice focuses on the working conditions of art production, in part including the precarious elements of this mode of living, whilst challenging the commercialization of artistic production and the fetishization of the art object in both the economic and artistic domains. The composition of the sculptures, perhaps better described as assemblages, are imbued with an ephemerality that is both physical and conceptual. In this regard, the works are created from found objects and ultimately left unchanged in their materiality. The artist does not weld, break or otherwise render obsolete the original purpose of the object. Beyond this, once the period of the exhibition is complete the sculptures are then disassembled. The majority of the objects are then re-sold or donated individually in their original state and corresponding economic value or repurposed for new sculptures. This practice ultimately questions the permanence of the art-object and the fluidity of the practice exists in opposition to economic and cultural power structures within artistic production.
As part of this conceptual framework, a dominant aspect of Amankulov’s practice is the performative act of searching for objects with which to compose the temporary sculptures. Seeking these items Amankulov undergoes a consistent process of exploring local thrift stores, flea markets, online marketplaces and trash containers. Alongside this, elements of the final sculptures are borrowed from friends, colleagues and the institutions or exhibition settings within which the works are displayed. This process is ultimately tailored to the site-specificity of the works with an aim to challenge certain formal, contextual or historical aspects of the objects in relation to the space and socio-political conditions within which they are exhibited. Through this, the artist interrogates constrictions to the artistic practice including the physicality of the space itself, budget limitations and subjective aesthetic, political and ideological preferences. In conjunction with the site-specificity of the choice of objects, the final assemblages are also always created on-site eradicating the possibility of long-term planning and deliberately creating an environment for the artist where the direct creative process and existence of the object are both emphatically connected to the confines of the exhibition space and period.