Aga Ousseinov
New York, NY
ARTIST STATEMENT
Kites are the earliest flying machines used for wars,
games and for delivering visual messages.
In these works, I chose a slow way to “deliver” messages that contrasts the chaos of visual information on the web.
These kites are inspired by the aesthetic of early modernist travel posters from the 1920-30s and made to point
to a series of urgent questions. These questions are addressing the crisis that humanity is facing at the moment.
The crisis is not a tragedy: in fact, our lives are possible because humanity is in a constant crisis.
The crisis encourages us to improve our knowledge and skills.
There is a constant need to learn and improve our lives; we are like children who get excited while playing with kites in the park.
Our lives become more meaningful while we can play and entertain ideas and move toward improvement.
In these works, I chose a slow way to “deliver” messages that contrasts the chaos of visual information on the web.
These kites are inspired by the aesthetic of early modernist travel posters from the 1920-30s and made to point
to a series of urgent questions. These questions are addressing the crisis that humanity is facing at the moment.
The crisis is not a tragedy: in fact, our lives are possible because humanity is in a constant crisis.
The crisis encourages us to improve our knowledge and skills.
There is a constant need to learn and improve our lives; we are like children who get excited while playing with kites in the park.
Our lives become more meaningful while we can play and entertain ideas and move toward improvement.
BIO
Aga Ousseinov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan.
MFA in Sculpture from V.I.Surikov Fine Arts Institute in Moscow, 1986
Studied at ICP New York in 1992-1993.
Lives and works in New York City, US since 1991.
Initially trained as a sculptor, Aga Ousseinov studied photography and video at the International Center of Photography after moving to New York City. These additional media gave him the freedom to pursue his investigation in the interaction between individual and cultural narrative structures. His work in particular suggests two self-conscious and conflicting visions of the world: one that is rational and technological, which contrasts another: poetic, imaginary and emotional. Pushing forward established traditions of sculpture, his works are sculptural installations combined with videos, photographs, drawings and collages.
His work has been reviewed in the Brooklyn Rail, on Artnet, The New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, Financial Times, The New Republic and other publications, among them in books: “NYC: Mapping the Soul of the City” by Katharine Harmon, “Scenes of Everyday Life” by Richard Milazzo and others.