Prayer

Picture from the series "Spirit of the Time." Not far from the city of New Athos is the place of the ancient capital of the Abkhaz kingdom. On the high Iverian mountain, surrounded by powerful walls with towers, Anacopia stood in the fifth century, and in the sixth century the Anacopian temple was founded there. Over the centuries of its existence, the temple was partially destroyed several times, rebuilt and remodeled. Today, the Anacopian temple has not been completely preserved, but some of its halls and the surviving altar give an idea of its former greatness. For centuries, the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary was kept in the walls of the temple, which was attributed to the properties of healing in ancient chronicles. People believed that the holy icon protects Anacopia and its inhabitants from enemies and troubles.
Now thousands of pilgrims come to the Anakopia temple to see this holy place with their own eyes, turn to the Virgin with prayers and drink water from a spring near ancient ruins.

The painting "Prayer" is a spiritual image of the altar of Anakopia temple. Cutting off all that was superfluous, the arch center was chosen as the compositional center, through which a wall hung with many icons, many of which were brought by pilgrims. The picturesque technique of glazing on the canvas conveys the gracious fire of candles and the warmth addressed to the God of prayers.

About the project:
This project reflects the life of quite ordinary things. However, in my works I consider everyday life as a philosophical category of being. Many objects surrounding us, objects of architecture are aging their lives. From the usual human life, they fall into the power of nature, which in turn transforms man-made, plunging into the world of flora and fauna. Such objects attract the artist, and the perception of familiar things goes from a different angle. One of the ideas of the concept "Spirit of the time" is the transmission of the cultural code to new generations. A moss-covered forged step of an abandoned house, a shriveled tree of an old window shutter, a forgotten mailbox no longer needed by anyone - all these are beacons of the passing times.
Picturesque paintings dedicated to the New Athos, Mokva Church (Abkhazia) tell about the contrast between extinction and rebirth. The echo of the past war was the result of the loss and ruin of most of the nations heritage sites. In depleted cultural monuments that are undergoing secondless destruction, the only phenomenon that preserves the foundation is the faith of people and the prayer of these places.

The "Spirit of the time", in its very name, carries information not only about objects that pass away from a persons life, but also about the process of cultural development itself, as a way of substitution and rebirth. The kindest in all these discussions on canvas is the jubilant triumph of nature. It absorbs all the best that is created by man and his unsuccessful experience. However, until the traces of previous times became objects of archeology, I want to talk about them.