THE TSUKANOV ART COLLECTION

Ten colour photographs of icons, printed on canvas; c.a. 100 x 80 cm each, 1993-2012.

"The Empty Icons series was created by Pepperstein as part of his work with the Medical Hermeneutics Inspectorate, a conceptual art group he founded with Sergey Anufriev and Yury Leiderman. "Icon" and "Emptiness" are key concepts for the Medical Germeneutics group. The idea of emptiness was connected with "the empty invidvidual space that projects psychedelia". According to the group's dictionary, emptiness is a void enabling its inhabitants to observe pictures of the "higher world" from a sweet darkness.  Orthodox pictures, including stylized icon landscapes, emerge as a result of hallucination " (From "In An Absolute Disorder", Russian Contemporary Art. Kandinsky Prize 2007-1012. An Exhibition Catalogue).