Electronic Winds (2015-2018)
Full HD video, computer animation
Music by Sergey Ryabchenko ©

The wind is invisible, but we can feel it, hear it and observe its actions. In addition to physical laws, it has its own mythological poetics, it is a hero of fairy tales and a god of myths. I found it interesting to transform ancient Greek mythology with its unique atmosphere into a virtual mythology and create portraits of Electronic Winds that permeate the space of new times.

Stepan Ryabchenko

Electronic Winds

Disturbing "Transition" — a reflection on the sensation of a turning point, darkness condensing before dawn. The milky skies in the background are also in a transitional state. They are shrouded in a light haze - either before sunset, or before dawn. The combination of closed and open space and the border between them embodies anxiety, the proximity of the bifurcation point.  In most of his works Ryabchenko puts optimistic messages, therefore, despite the apocalyptic nature of the scene, this is still a step towards hope.

Transition

Dedication to the Spider (2020)
size varies, digital print on aluminum under plexiglass (Diasec)

In mythopoetic traditions, creative activity is associated with the image of a spider.  The Great Spinner is the Creator who weaves the thread of life from her own substance, attaches to herself through the umbilical cord of all the people and weaves them into the web of the patterns of the world. In the context, we are talking about the creation of a new global network of the virtual world, in which it is extremely important to grasp the web, which will serve as a guiding or even saving thread for each of us.

Stepan Ryabchenko


Dedication to the Spider

Fiolent Crystal Baby. From the Virtual Garden series
Full HD video, computer animation, size varies
Music by Sergey Ryabchenko ©

The goal of Stepan Ryabchenko’s art practice is to develop a sustainable digital world with its own laws, forms of life, and mythology. Each new work represents a new topos or character in this virtual universe. Ryabchenko’s series Virtual Garden is comprised of anthropomorphic characters inhabiting minimalist virtual landscapes. They are not just objects but full-blown characters with their own personalities and author’s descriptions. The garden’s existence is not limited by climatic factors or any physical parameters. Its views, biodiversity, area and lifespan are limited by nothing but the potential of our minds.
In Fiolent Crystal Baby, the new resident joining the virtual habitat soars above the water surface in a light mist, emanating peace and tranquility. Elegant, semi-translucent and gentle, it resembles a zoomorphic inhabitant of oceanic depths rather than a plant. Therefore, Ryabchenko is playing demiurge, facing no external canons or limitations in his own world. This fantastical flower, “brought to life” with animation, slowly moves its tentacle leaves to atmospheric ambient soundtrack, developed by the artist’s brother Sergey Ryabchenko specifically for the purpose.
Creating his digital “nature,” Stepan Ryabchenko espouses the idea of harmony between humankind and its environment, with each side being seen as a subject endowed with equal rights and consciousness. Instead of making nature a mere reflection of human feelings and associations, the artist confers it with feelings of its own, re-mythologizing it and making humankind just one element of the myth. The issue of the humankind’s interactions with nature is particularly pressing now, when the threat of ecological disaster looms permanently over the world because of the humankind’s consumerist approach to the environment. By using one product of the humankind’s technological development as his instrument, Ryabchenko considers how this relationship could be reframed.

Natalia Matsenko, art critic

Fiolent Crystal Baby. From the Virtual Garden series

Tranquil. From the Virtual Landscapes series (2020)
Full HD video, computer animation, size varies
Music by Sergey Ryabchenko ©

In themes and motives of his work Stepan Ryabchenko always gravitates to the fundamental - mythology, spirituality, nature. He is worried about epic heroes, religious subjects, and natural elements. Often the work’s subjects are fictitious plants and animals - surrealistic forms of life, existing according to their own laws in the world created for them by the artist. And the world itself is a match for them. Virtual landscapes where Ryabchenko unfolds characters stories is a whole alternative reality, a self-sufficient multidimensional digital space.
Abounding with strange inhabitants, the landscapes themselves are minimalistic and spacious - a pure canvas for the demiurge, the embodiment of the vastness and limitless possibilities of consciousness that can fill (or not) the available space with anything. Bright contrasting colors or light translucent haze, dawn, twilight or sunny midday, life riot or perfect desolation - in any form and condition the landscape in Stepan Ryabchenko's works is full of vitality. His landscapes look like world fragments full of hopes and expectations, just beginning to be created and filled with meanings.
The world appearance, in its almost naive primordial nature, is far from being entirely urban, technogenic, despite its technological digital origin. A virtual utopia, where prosperity and harmony reign, not knowing the interventions, smoothly emerging from the ocean of possibilities.

Natalia Matsenko, art critic 


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