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July 19, 1998

London's rented apartment is in an edifice built for Soviet heavyweights. The architecture is Stalin Baroque, alternatively known as the Russian wedding cake.
Stalin Baroque

At the pinnacle of the ornate structure sits a red star like a diadem on a crown.

Savado & Sevchenko Artists SAVADO and SEVCHENKO collaborate closely.
The artists began their bad-boy career with an assault on the Union of Soviet Artists. In 1987 they exhibited a postmodern painting at an official show in Moscow's Maliy Manege.

Postmodern art weapon

Horror of horrors, the artists appropriated a Velasquez composition and a representation of Cleopatra.
The Communist Party newspaper Pravda(truth) denounced the artists, and KGB agents impressed upon them the government's displeasure. No more postmodernism, or else...
Stalin's Mechanical Monster
(video still from Untitled)
Though Ukraine gained its independence in 1993, the artists remained highly critical of Russia and the former Soviet Union. In the video, Untitled(1994), a Ukrainian patriot rides the Soviet hammer and sickle, hanging on for dear life.
Untitled (Stalin's Mechanical Monster) (0:53 min. RealVideo clip)

Coal Miners in Tutus (click for enlarged view)

Domball Chocolate consists of one hundred photos of grimy coal miners in the nude and semi-clad in tutus. Savadov and artist Oleksandr Kharchenko traveled to the Domball coal mines to shoot on location. The photographic series, a segment of the installation Deep Insiders(1997), showed at the Soros Center in Kiev, and traveled to Rutgers University and Bard College, USA.
The photos mate two great exports of the former Soviet Union, natural resources and ballet.
Sailors in tutus
(video still)

The tutu is a Soviet fetish. The artists recall the "classical" mourning that accompanied the death of an important Communist official. For five days ballet and the music of Russian composers preempted regular TV programming.
Voices of Love
(0:41 min. RealVideo clip) The video Voices of Love (1994) is a grand ballet in Post Soviet style. Sailors from the first battleship of a free Ukraine don tutus and dance with a model of their ship
Savado & Sevchenko
Savado & Sevchenko

London's rented apartment is in an edifice built for Soviet heavyweights. The architecture is Stalin Baroque, alternatively known as the Russian wedding cake.	Stalin Baroque
At the pinnacle of the ornate structure sits a red star like a diadem on a crown.

Savado & Sevchenko	Artists SAVADO and SEVCHENKO collaborate closely. The artists began their bad-boy career with an assault on the Union of Soviet Artists. In 1987 they exhibited a postmodern painting at an official show in Moscow's Maliy Manege.
Postmodern art weapon	Horror of horrors, the artists appropriated a Velasquez composition and a representation of Cleopatra.
The Communist Party newspaper Pravda(truth) denounced the artists, and KGB agents impressed upon them the government's displeasure. No more postmodernism, or else...
Stalin's Mechanical Monster (video still from Untitled)	Though Ukraine gained its independence in 1993, the artists remained highly critical of Russia and the former Soviet Union. In the video, Untitled(1994), a Ukrainian patriot rides the Soviet hammer and sickle, hanging on for dear life.
Untitled (Stalin's Mechanical Monster) (0:53 min. RealVideo clip) Coal Miners in Tutus (click for enlarged view)
Domball Chocolate consists of one hundred photos of grimy coal miners in the nude and semi-clad in tutus. Savadov and artist Oleksandr Kharchenko traveled to the Domball coal mines to shoot on location.	The photographic series, a segment of the installation Deep Insiders(1997), showed at the Soros Center in Kiev, and traveled to Rutgers University and Bard College, USA.
The photos mate two great exports of the former Soviet Union, natural resources and ballet. Sailors in tutus (video still)	The tutu is a Soviet fetish. The artists recall the "classical" mourning that accompanied the death of an important Communist official. For five days ballet and the music of Russian composers preempted regular TV programming.
Voices of Love (0:41 min. RealVideo clip)	The video Voices of Love (1994) is a grand ballet in Post Soviet style. Sailors from the first battleship of a free Ukraine don tutus and dance with a model of their ship
Savado & Sevchenko