Sublime.... that really seems the only truly appropriate word for this video from the Ukraine.
But watching - intellectually staggered and emotionally moved as I was - I was prompted to consider exactly What it is...?
Painting, with Sand as the medium? Of course. Performance? Certainly. Of it itself the sand drawings are just static drawings; beautifully realized for sure but distinctly lacking the impact those same drawings are imbued with when presented as a real-time and progressive performance.
But still it seams that describing this video below as simply a 'Performed' 'Painting' with Sand does not nearly do the work justice.
What is it really? It is CINEMA. Pure and simple, it is the art of the moving image. The images are not drawings, they are progressive and continually changing moving images engaging with a performed narrative. if Chris Marker's superb La Jette is cinema, made as it is from nothing but still images that progress blend and change, then certainly this work below possess all the same uniquely cinematic qualities.
The video below presents an art that transcends the largely disposable experiences of most music, painting and movies - it is transportive, intoxicating, utterly compelling and infused with a distinct humanity. Once watched it is not easily forgotten.
