My clown in russian state museum, sanct petersburg

Grigory Gurevich, “CLOWN”, sculpture, acid free matboard, wood, brass.

The story of this sculpture is quite unusual. On 8th of  November of 2015 I received a call from my x - pantomime student Yuryi Podrazhansky from Sankt Petersburg, Russia, where he lives, with the question, if I have a sculpture of a clown. I know that I do not have sculpture of clown for sure, but I started to bring to my memory all art I created before if I will find any work with Clown in it.
“I have drawings and some color art work with clowns, but not a sculpture. Why do you ask about particularly sculpture?  Can it be a drawing, or painting?”

“ No, it has to be sculpture. I’m in position to exhibit a sculpture of Clown on the exhibition of 2016 in Russian State Museum, if you have a Clown sculpture”.
It was tempting for me not to miss a chance of participation in a group show in Russian State Museum, specifically in this show together with most famous artists of Russia.
I decided that I must produce a sculpture. I still have time. And, as usual, every morning I visualized myself doing sculpture of a clown in my imagination. What material I must choose to make it?

Well,
1. Bronze will be great and it is a permanent material but the process is complex, plus price will be huge for casting and transporting. Not Good!.
2. Marble. I must have a place where I can carve it. It must be a sculpture studio where I can carve it and it will be huge noise. NOT GOOD!.
3. Just a clay. Not good as well. If it braces, it will be impossible to repair, the same as plaster. Besides both materials are very heavy.
I must think it over.

PART TWO.
I WAS THINKING TO MAKE MY Clown from ceramics. It could be beautiful - glased and fired ceramic piece, but it still will be heavy and costly. Besides, if it will crack in some place, I won’t be able to fix it. Plus, the price of transportation and insurance will cost me a lot of money.
Since I had an experience to make a Pantomime Theater, using just vision and imagination and after bringing it to a pretty high level of success, regardless of resistance of Cultural administration of Soviet Government, I adopted a theory that all is possible to realize, and it is not important, how much money you spend. The best is NOT TO SPEND ANY MONEY. For me, who is not getting monthly salary, it is a sport to get my goal without spending a lot of money, but the best - not to spend money AT ALL.
So, I was thinking about zero budget as well.
At once, again during one of my meditations on how to resolve a problem of material to use for a clown, I found a solution: it must be done from left over mat board I collect after framing my watercolors and drawings! This was truly genius idea! Material will NOT cost me any cent! I have big variety of glue, I have also big variety of clamps to hold parts together while glue is drying and my sculpture will be light and will newer brake, because material will spring.
Again, Uryi calls me from Sankt Petersburg, “Grisha, I have an idea for your clown: put him on a spring so his body will tilt in different directions”.
I found it interesting proposition. I collect all kind of found materials and I have small box with variety of spring, some from broken umbrellas, from ball pens, they are all of different strength, size, thickness and length. In my garbage collection I found circular small base for something, which can be used for a shoes of clown and I can insert in them long rounded wood sticks, like a long dowel for a skeleton which will hold all glued mat board. It was a beginning. My Clown must stay on some plate, so I cut out a platform from pretty thick paper board which I turned in to a hallow from a button box. Using x - acto knife I started to make a clown’s - shoes, head, pants, jacket, improvising every step and inventing materials and forms to make my clown friendly, funny, unusual. I made his tie flying away from him as if wind pull it from his jacket, using aluminum screen and covering it with a paper towel small pieces. I put in his left hand an umbrella, resting on the floor. Than I got an idea to make a flower standing next to him, because when clown will be tilted with a plate he stands on, flower will shake, employing visually movement on the pedestal. As a last point, I made two butterflies, one resting on his flying tie and another one - on a lief of the flower. I was looking for a very thin, hardly visible springy vier which will help to give an impression of a flying butterfly and finally got an idea to use a small spring, each ball pen has. After straightening with a hammer one spring, I cut it and glued to butterfly and lief of the flower and a tie.
Now I can concentrate on the idea of tilting a clown. I used pretty strong spring from an umbrella and cut it to a length, which will give tilting effect, attaching this spring from the bottom of a stand. After cutting another lower platform, I connected this spring to an upper part of it. I made a “sandwich” of two platforms and spring in between them. My Clown was falling completely or on one side, or on the other without any limitations. NOT GOOD. I constantly was cutting spring making it shorter and shorter. Finally, I cut spring to a size that Clown was only leaning, but not falling. But still it did not have any limitations. After turning lower stand in to a box, the walls of it limiter a tilt of a Clown.
 Now I finally can paint my Clown, umbrella and a flower.
I took about three months to create this sculpture.
Next part 3 will be about transporting this sculpture to a Sankt Petersburg, Russia.
 

On a photo Inessa Laurel is smelling Clown’s flower during one of my parties before sending a Clown to Russia.
Clown, Part 3

Finally, after almost 3 month of pretty intense work, a Clown was ready for shipping to Sankt Petersburg. Again, I have to visualize, how I must package it, so it will be delivered safely and lI st expensive.
The common way is to make a sturdy box filled with foam or special foam dust or particles inside to keep it secure inside of box. We more often go for a common, trivial way. This how we all thinking, not using creative and unusual method. I do the same. There is probably one difference, I try to spend as little money as possible. My income doesn’t permit me to waste and it makes me creative in some way.
Like everybody in the world, we throw away our garbage, but garbage of our neighbors is somehow is specifically interesting and when I go to deposit my staff in garbage containers, I carefully look at what other people are throwing away. Here, I found some parts of someone’s box: lumber and metal corners. This is exactly what I need! I just need to cut lumber to the right size, connect all with metal corners, to fill box with bubbled plastic and all is ready! What can be better! The problem is that box will add weight to a package. My clown is very light. What ‘s the point of adding weight to a package?
But for now: UNIVERSAL ENERGY IS WATCHING FOR ME AND HELPING ME ON EVERY MY STEP!
But I decided to wait for a while and did not assemble a box. Shipping a box will cost about $200, plus I may need to have an insurance. It will add close to $75 minimum. It will be delivered after 20 days.
No, possibly I will find different way to send my Clown.
Again, Uriy, my friend is calling from Sankt Peterburg, “Grisha, is your Clown ready? My friends were shutting a documentary in New York and tomorrow they are flying to Sanct Peterburg and they can take your sculpture and bring it to me. Do you think you can bring your Clown to area of Wall Street?”
“Naturally, I can do that!”
My mind was boggling with questions,”How can I pack a Clown so they can take it? The box will not work for sure.”
Again, I brought my garbage around the corner of my house and .... what I see: someone threw away big piece of sturdy brown paper. It used in a Post Office to wrap packages. I immediately got an idea, to rip this paper on small sections, wrinkle it and to put under arms, legs, jacket and than loosely wrap head and attach this wrinkled paper to a body of a Clown with minimum tape and than to put lower and upper parts of body In 2 shopping bag, again, to secure with a masking tape and now, to use black garbage plastic bag and to use a rope to make a handle to carry it easier on hand. This was a mucin better idea! My package was so light, I can carry my Clown in my pinky! Stand was separated and I put it in a separate plastic bag. I wrote an instruction on how to assemble Clown again and. found crew of film makers in New York by circling around Wall Street area. They were waiting for me and my Clown was carried on hands up to a Sankt Petersburg!
The Opening was on 16th of March, 2016.
I purchased around trip ticket, but missed my plain because of a repairs of a railroad in Lafayette area. My flight was departing at 2:20 but I arrived at Kennedy Airport only at 1:45. I have to purchase brand new ticket both ways with the departure at 7:30 the same day.
This is a different story and I have my description of that on “PROZA.RU”
The opening of exhibition in Russian State Museum was a very exciting. Between guests I noticed very. Famous Russian Clown Yuriy POPOV! When I was a school boy, I’ve seen him performing in the Circus. Here he was wearing a bright jacket and was surrounded with a big group of his admirers. He immigrated ro Germany and specifically flew here to visit this exhibition. It was a big honor to see him again, but, as I found out later, soon after this show he died in Germany.  It was pleasure for my to be exhibited next to works of famous Russian artists as Petrov Vodkin and others.
People were lining up to canal Griboedova! Many my friends came over and Ura Podrazhansky helped me to get a catalog of this show!

Copyright, Grigory Gurevich, June 25, 2019

This is a photo of a page from a catalog “CIRCUS” published by the administration of a Russian State Museum in Sankt Petersburg, Russia.
Thank you, Ura Podrazhansky!