Stones revived by Alexey Andreev
An ordinary stone in his hands turns into magical artifact resembling either animals or humans. The stone by its nature is cold, passionless and eternal. From this cold eternity the sculptor like a demiurge extracts an essence invisible to many. All of a sudden, the emotionless stone takes on a different life like the Golem once was created.
The stone picked up by the artist in the fields or by the river goes beyond an ordinary talisman. It becomes a sensual being living its own life.
The author can see in a simple gray stone a strange hedgehog similar to an Amerindian totem, as well as transform the other one into a feathered creature, a plastic chimera perfect in its rocky nature. This is probably the same way how our distant ancestors treated the idle and impartial messengers of heaven.
Alexei Andreev’s artworks are resilient to figurability of tropical Africa, ancient China, and masks of Melanesia. The symbolic and prehistoric expressiveness is possible when natural shape of the stones meets remarkable skill. Few can do it patiently transmitting magic and gift. The basalts or hard granites, which the author uses, require particular treatment and strength.
The author’s pattern is distinguished by its particular integrity. Andreev does not try to hide the natural physical properties of the material. Like his predecessors worldwide, he has chosen a rough stone with an uneven texture - one that was close at hand, that everyone could see. But only the artist recognized fantastic characters admiring their incredible simplicity. The small sculptures transmit the author’s irony and affability, and what is more – his great sympathy towards these tiny demons. The master feels, perhaps superstitiously his co-authorship with the superhuman forces of nature existing from the very start. This is how people once viewed the Golem created by God’s force, a creature made similar to a human though with no soul, so far imperfect, but already hiding in itself the embryo of life that the master frees.
How Alexey Andreev does it.
Sergei Kharevsky